Fox Sage
by pharaoh-90
Summary: What if the fox decides to help Naruto, instead of hurt him? How will everyone react when they learn that not only has the fox trained Naruto, but he is free as well? -on hiatus pending the development of a plot-
1. Chapter 1

"Oi, I'm gonna go to bed."

"Fine. You want me to look after your chips for ya then?"

"NO!"

"What? Why not?"

"Cause you'd end up spending all my money on sake and women!" the figure said, as he swept up all his winnings into a bag.

"No I wouldn't. They don't serve sake on this boat!"

"The answer's still no. Now gimme the room key so I can go to bed."

He grabbed the key from the other man and walked up to the counter so he could exchange his chips for cash.

"Hello. I'd like to cash out these chips, please," he asked the lady behind the counter.

"Alright. I just need your name, room number, and the amount you'd like back in cash."

"Reiko, 307, and I'd like 1000 back," said Reiko.

"Ok. We'll have that delivered to your room shortly," said the exchange lady as she gathered up the chips, "Have a nice night!"

As Reiko walked back to the cabin he was sharing for the week, he thought back to that morning.

_Flashback_

"Oi, Gaki, put this on."

"Uh, Ero-sennin, why do you want me to wear an eye patch?"

"Its part of the disguise you'll be wearing while we're on the boat to Jungle Country."

"Why do I have to wear a real one though? Can't I just Henge one as part of the disguise?"

"No. The company who owns the boat doesn't allow them. It helps keep missing-nins and bandits from using their boats. Besides, there are seals on the boat itself that will cancel it anyways."

"Oh, that makes sense, I guess." Naruto had managed to gain a little intelligence on his travels. It wasn't anywhere close to Shikamaru smart, but at least it was a step in that direction.

"Here's the rest of the stuff you need," said Jiraiya, as he handed Naruto some clothes, and a small paper bag.

"What's in the bag, Ero-sennin?"

"It has some hair dye, a contact lens, and some make-up to cover your whisker marks."

Naruto groaned at this. "Please tell me the colors are normal this time."

"Relax. The hair dye is brown, and the contact lens will turn your eye green."

Last time they had to do this, Jiraiya had accidentally bought pink hair dye and yellow contacts. Needless to say, Naruto hadn't been very happy.

"Sorry, Kotaro, you're gonna have to hide in my pack again while get on the boat," he told the little fox on his head, after he woke him up.

"Fine, just let me out when we get to the room."

As they boarded the boat, nobody who knew Naruto would've realized he was there. The orange and black clothes were gone, as were the shining blue eyes, whisker marks, and the tangled blond mess he called hair. Instead, he was dressed in simple brown and green traveling clothes, with a dark blue cloak, his right eye was green, the left being hidden behind the patch, and his long, straight brown hair hung down, almost completely hiding his ears. A simple black headband kept the hair out of his face, since he was pretending to be someone from Jiraiya's publishing company.

Right before they were about to board, Naruto realized they hadn't decided on a name for him to use, since 'Naruto' obviously wouldn't work. It seemed as though Jiraiya realized this at the same time, and put his hand on Naruto's shoulder, which Naruto took to mean 'shut up and don't ask your question.'

"Tickets please," asked the man in charge of boarding.

Jiraiya handed the man their tickets.

"Just the two of you?" They nodded. "I just need your names, and we'll get you to your cabin."

"Jiraiya and Reiko."

"Ah, room 307. Enjoy your trip!"

Since they were some of the first people to board the ship, it wasn't very difficult to find their room. They deposited their bags, and 'Reiko' went off to find something to do, after he let Kotaro out of his bag. After a rather short while searching, where he found all of nothing to do, he stumbled into what struck him as almost a mini casino, but with just table games. Not having anything else better to do, he sat down at a table, and ended up playing poker for the rest of the day.

_End flashback_

He was suddenly brought back to the real world as he bumped into somebody as he turned the corner into the hallway where his cabin was, knocking them both over.

"Gomen, I wasn't watching where I was going," said the woman he bumped into.

"No it's ok, I wasn't watching where I was…….going………..either," said Reiko, as he got a look at who he ran into.

She was about an inch or two shorter than him, with pink hair and green eyes. She was wearing a sleeveless red shirt, a pink skirt over black shorts, and knee-high black boots. As she stood up, he noticed a Konoha hitai-ite on a red band, which she had tied up her hair with.

"Hey, you ok?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. You just reminded me of someone I haven't seen in a long time," he said.

"Oh, well, enjoy your trip!" she said, as she ran off toward her cabin, which was just a couple cabins down from his.

As soon as he made note of the number on her door, he left to go find Jiraiya. He found him still at the poker table, though he had already cashed out. He went up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Huh, what do you want, Reiko?"

"I need to talk to you for a moment," the tone Naruto used was one he hardly ever used. It was the one where he was being completely serious, and didn't want to mess around in the slightest.

"Alright, let's go."

The pair went back to their cabin rather quickly; since Jiraiya was concerned about whatever it was that caused the tone change in Naruto's voice, for he normally only used it when they were discussing Akatsuki.

"So, Gaki, what is it?"

"I…ran into somebody."

"So?"

"From Konoha."

"Oh? Who was it?"

"It looked like Sakura-chan."

"Really? Do you know by chance what her room number is?"

"I think she went into 312 after she left, but I'm not entirely sure."

Jiraiya nodded at this, and went over to the phone, dialing for assistance.

"Yes, I'm looking for the room of Haruno Sakura. She forgot some of her belongings in the dining room, and I'd like to return them to her. I think her room is 312, but I'm not sure, and I don't want to take her stuff to the wrong person…………it's not?.........really? Hmmm………313? Ok, thank you."

"So?" Naruto asked.

"Well, her room is 313, not 312, but it would seem that you did run into Sakura."

"So, can I go say hi?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"_We_ will go say hi."

"Can we bring Kotaro?"

"As long as he changes to look like a person."

As soon as he finished speaking, the tiny fox, which was red, with black tips on his ears and tail, had changed into his human form. He looked to be about twelve, for he was a rather young fox. He had red hair, with streaks of black in it, yellow eyes, and was wearing clothes similar to Reiko/Naruto.

"Let's go."

Sakura had just finished the scroll she had been reading, and was about to get in the shower when she heard someone knocking on the door.

"I'll get it," she told the girl she was traveling with. She opened the door to find the toad sage, the man she ran into earlier, and what looked like the man's son.

"Jiraiya-sama?" she asked, confused slightly as to why they were there.

"Yo, Sakura. Can we come in?"

"Y-yeah, of course," she said, before turning to her teammate, "Hinata, we have guests."

Hinata put down the book she was reading and came over to greet the trio.

"Ano, who is it?"

Jiraiya answered, "I am the Great Toad Sannin, Jiraiya, and this is Reiko, and Kotaro," he said, motioning towards each of them.

After closing the door, Sakura got a better look at them. She noticed the similarity between Reiko and Kotaro.

"Reiko, is he your son?"

At this, Jiraiya, Reiko, and Kotaro started laughing.

"No, I'm not his son. I'm his pet," Kotaro said, as he returned to his fox form.

He then jumped on Reiko, and sat on his shoulder.

As they walked over to the 'sitting area,' which was just a couch and a couple of chairs around a small table, Reiko fell to the back of the group, where, unnoticed by the others, took off the eye patch and contact, and wiped off the make-up. He kept his back to them as the others sat down.

Sakura looked at Jiraiya, "So what can we do for you?"

"Oh, just thought we'd drop by, say hi, stuff like that. Besides," he motioned to Reiko, "he really wanted to see you again."

Reiko turned around, flashing his trademark grin, and showing his bright blue eyes and now-visible whisker marks, "Hey, Sakura-chan, Hinata, how's it going?"

Needless to say, the two young women were beyond shocked. Silence reigned for a good five minutes.

Sakura finally spoke, "N-Naruto? Is that really you?"

"Come on, Sakura-chan, I'm not that different."

"Yes you are, Gaki. I'm surprised it didn't take them longer. Think about it. Your hair is brown and tamed, not blond and sticking up everywhere. You have no Konoha headband, you're not wearing a bunch of orange, and you're not three feet tall anymore. All you got going for you is blue eyes and whisker marks," said Jiraiya.

"I guess. I haven't really got a good look at myself for awhile."

Sakura finally came out of her shock-induced stupor, "There's a big mirror on the bathroom door."

Naruto went to look at himself. As he got within range of the mirror he went silent for a moment, before saying, "Damn, no wonder it took them so long. _I _don't recognize me."

He kept looking at himself, until he heard Hinata speak, which kind of surprised everybody there.

"Ano, w-where did y-y-you get th-the fox?" she asked.

Naruto walked back over to the group before continuing, "Well, I didn't really 'get' him, it's more like I 'found' him. Me and Ero-sennin were on our way to some village in Snow Country, and I found him and his mother in a field. She was caught in a trap, and…..was no longer with us." He paused for a moment, looking at Kotaro, who seemed lost in thought. "Since Kotaro wasn't really old enough to fend for himself, I took him with us. About six months later, I went to let him go, but he just stayed with me."

"So how come he can talk?" asked Sakura.

"I'm a member of the fox clan. I.E., I'm summonable. Since Naruto is the current holder of the fox contract, I'm kinda bound to him anyway, and I like it here better than staying in the summon world," Kotaro answered.

"Ano, can you still summon toads?" asked Hinata, the stutter mysteriously absent.

"Unfortunately not. Well, I can summon the scroll holder, but I'm only allowed to do that if Ero-sennin here dies, so a new name can be added if I find them worthy, or something like that anyway. I had to give it up to get the fox contract."

"Bah, I still don't know why you gave up the toad contract," said Jiraiya, "I mean, they're great in battle, can carry messages, can carry you, what else do you need?"

"Well for one," Naruto countered, "foxes are a lot better at fighting than toads, can carry messages and me faster, and farther, and they can hunt. Toads can't hunt."

"Anyways, why are you two here?" he asked Sakura.

"Tsunade-sama sent us to find some of the rare herbs that only grow in Jungle Country."

"Huh," he replied, yawning, "I guess I should go to bed."

"We'll tell you more about it later, if you tell us about your training," said Sakura, "See ya tomorrow."

The guys left and went back to their room. The rest of the time they were on the boat was spent swapping stories, mostly between Naruto and Sakura, since Jiraiya didn't seem to care, and Hinata was unable to say much around Naruto.

Once they arrived, they quickly gathered last-minute supplies, and set off into the heart of Jungle Country.


	2. Chapter 2

**Ch 2**

"Sakura, wait!" yelled Jiraiya.

"But Jiraiya-sama, we gotta help them," screamed Sakura, "they could be injured!"

"And how are you planning on finding them, huh? You gonna jump in after them?" Jiraiya said.

"Well, it's better than doing nothing!" she continued, still screaming.

_Flashback_

Their day had been going great, well, as great as any day where you have to walk through a jungle, anyway. Sakura had been complaining non-stop about how the humidity was destroying her hair. Even Naruto, whom could be called a master of complaining, found it annoying. In fact, he found it so annoying, that he wasn't even talking to her. He even decided _not_ to ask her for a date when they got back to Konoha. Instead, he had dropped back and was trying to get a full sentence out of her current team-mate.

"So, Hinata, why are you and Sakura all the way out here?" he asked.

""W-well, Tsunade-sama s-said th-th-that there are s-some excellent m-m-medicinal plants a-a-around here," she said.

They talked about plants for awhile, and Hinata told Naruto about some of what he'd missed over the past four years, including that she was also apprenticed under Tsunade, along with Sakura, and how everyone else in their age group had made chunin, and how Neji had made jounin.

"Nani? Everyone else is chunin already?" exclaimed Naruto.

"In fact, y-you're the only g-genin left."

Needless to say, his response shocked the two girls, who'd been expecting him to start screaming and whining. He started laughing.

Sakura turned around and glared at him, "What's so funny?"

"I'm not a genin. I passed the exam in Suna a couple of months ago." He replied.

They swapped exam stories for the next hour or so, until they got to the bridge. It was your stereotypical jungle bridge, made of vines and rotting planks, over a huge canyon with a river at the bottom. It was about fifty feet above the river, and maybe a hundred feet across.

"Oi, Naruto, send one of your foxes across to check out the anchors on the other side, and to see if the boards will hold weight." Said Jiraiya.

"Sure, Ero-sennin. Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Naruto replied, as he was covered in smoke.

'_Foxes? I guess he wasn't kidding about that_,' thought Sakura

As the smoke cleared, a knee-high red fox appeared.

"Yo, Naruto-sama, whatcha need?" asked the fox.

"Just for you to check out this bridge. It looks really old, and we don't want it to collapse on us. Oh, and check the anchors on the other side, too." He told the fox.

"Ok, be right back."

As soon as the fox took off, the girls looked at him.

"Ok, Naruto, spill it. Who taught you to summon foxes?" demanded Sakura.

"Someone very important to me," he lied, not wanting to tell them about his tenant.

"Oh, come on tell us."

"Sorry. Not happening."

"Fine. If you can't tell us who taught you, can you at least tell us who the boss is?" Sakura asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Cause I don't know who it is. I haven't been able to summon him yet. The most I can manage right now is a five-tail," he said, still lying, for he knew who the boss was. He knew him quite well. Especially since he was the boss's container. And he could summon him, too. But nobody knew that, not even Ero-sennin. He figured that the old pervert would probably have a heart attack if he summoned Kyuubi. Especially since no one else knew that Kyuubi didn't want to kill everything anymore. Well, at least not as much.

His thoughts were interrupted when the fox came back.

"The anchors and vines seem sturdy enough if you go one at a time, just be careful on the boards. A lot of them don't seem very strong."

"Thanks. I'll bring you back when I get some meat for you."

"Well, bye then." He said as he vanished.

Jiraiya spoke next, "I'll go first, since I'm the heaviest, then Sakura, Hinata, and Naruto. Wait until the person is all the way across before you start. Walk slowly; test each board before you put your full weight on it. Oh, and don't look down."

Jiraiya and Sakura made it across fine. Then it was Hinata's turn. She had made it about half way across when a gust of wind caught the bridge, and it caused her to slip on the wet wood. When her knee hit the board, it broke, and she was left dangling from the railing vine. Naruto instantly started running towards her, unconsciously going to his one-tailed state to increase his speed, pausing only to summon his fox back to have it run across and tell Jiraiya and Sakura to stay off the bridge.

When Naruto reached Hinata, he made a clone, and they both started pulling her up. Unfortunately, the rotting old vines weren't very happy that there were now three people to support, and broke free of the anchors, sending them into the river below.

_End Flashback_

Sakura was brought out of her shock by Naruto's fox biting her leg.

"Hey, they're fine, so stop worrying!" the fox said.

"How do you know that?" she cried, while starting to cry, since she figured they were both dead.

"I have a mental connection with Naruto, and he's telling me they're fine. They'll start making their way to the cliff village as soon as they can get out of the river, and he wants you two to head there also. As soon as he gets out, he says he's gonna give you a special seal that will allow you to summon me so you can check on their progress. And before you start worrying, I'm to stay with you until then."

"You're sure?" asked Sakura.

"Yes, I'm sure. Naruto's grown considerably while he's been gone."

"What was the red chakra that surrounded him? Was that something he learned too?" she asked next.

"You could say that. It's not my place to explain it. You'll have to ask Naruto about it when he gets back." Jiraiya said.

"Where are going?" asked Sakura.

"Gakegakure" responded Jiraiya.

"Hidden Cliff Village? I've never heard of it."

"Most people haven't. It's kinda small, and they don't have a kage. They really tend to keep to themselves. Now, let's get going."

"Hang on, Hinata!" Naruto screamed.

As they fell, the clone vanished. They held tightly to each other, the fear and adrenaline overpowering Hinata's shyness. Fortunately or unfortunately, they landed in a very deep part of the river. Fortunately for they didn't kill themselves by crashing into the bottom, unfortunately for they were thirty feet underwater in a raging whitewater river. They were able to get and keep their heads out of the water without too much difficulty, until a very wet and very pissed off fox swam up to Naruto and jumped on his head.

"Aah, Kotaro, what the hell did you do that for?" Naruto screamed once he could breathe again.

"Next time you go swimming, take me out of your coat first!" screamed the tiny fox.

"Sorry, I forgot you were in there. I was trying to save Hinata, and didn't have a chance to warn you. Believe me, it wasn't my choice to fall in." replied Naruto.

Suddenly a large rock came into view, and they were headed right for it. Naruto tried to maneuver them so that he would hit first, but didn't have enough time. Hinata slammed into it, and Naruto slammed into her, the combination of which knocked her out.

"Hinata!!" Naruto screamed, and grabbed her waist, pulling her back to him. He leaned back a little, to help keep her head out of the water, until they were out of the rapids, which fortunately didn't take very long. They were still stuck in the extremely fast river for the rest of the day, however, for the canyon didn't end until almost nightfall.

Hinata woke up the most confused she'd ever been. She had no idea where she was, who she was with, or even if she was still alive. Slowly, the knowledge came back. The mission with Sakura, meeting up with Jiraiya and Naruto, falling from the bridge, Naruto falling with her, and then crashing into the rock. As she came to, her senses started to kick in. she could tell it was dark out, she could smell and hear a fire going, but couldn't see it, so she figured she was turned away from it. She also found that she was lying on a cot of some sort, and was covered in a blanket.

Remembering her meeting with the rock, she checked herself for injuries, and came to two conclusions; one was that she had no major injuries, just some bruises, and what felt like a sprained ankle, and two was that she was only wearing her bra and underwear. At this, she started to panic, until she realized that her clothes would've been soaking wet. She started looking for them, and saw them hanging by the fire.

She also saw Naruto sitting there, with his back to her, probably to give her some privacy. She also saw a fox with him.

"Hey, Naruto, I think she's awake." The fox said.

"Ahh good." Naruto said as he spun around on the log he was sitting on. "Are you ok, Hinata?"

"Ano, I th-think so. My ankle hurts, though."

"Oh, that's good." Naruto sighed in relief as he walked over and sat down beside her.

"W-what do you m-mean, Naruto-kun?" she asked.

He was quiet for a while, until he said "You almost died."

_Flashback_

"**Hey Kit, you better hope this canyon ends soon. I don't think she's breathing" **said Kyuubi.

'Huh? She's not breathing? How long since you noticed?' he asked the fox.

"**I don't think it's been very long since she stopped, but you better hurry and get her breathing again."** Kyuubi told him.

"Hey, over there! I see a shore we can get out at!!" yelled Kotaro.

They swam to the shore, Naruto pulling the unconscious and not breathing Hinata behind him. Once they got out of the water, Naruto laid Hinata down on the sand.

"**Kit, listen to me. You need to take her coat off."**

Naruto took her coat off and rolled it up, sticking it under her feet. He took off his own, and put it under her head.

"**Now you need to let me take over."**

'Are you sure?'

"**Do you want to save her or not? It would take too long to explain what you need to do."**

'Alright, fine. Just hurry up.'

Once again, Naruto went into the one-tailed state, but this time the cloak extended to cover both Naruto and Hinata. While this was happening, Kyuubi started doing CPR on Hinata. He went on for a few moments, until she started to cough up the water that was in her lungs. Once she coughed most of it out, Kyuubi gave back control, and the cloak receded back into Naruto's seal.

As Naruto proceeded to check her for other injuries, she managed to mumble "Nar….u…..to….-kun?" before passing back out.

_End flashback_

"After that, I set up our camp, and that's really about all you missed," he told her, leaving out the parts with Kyuubi.

"Ano, N-n-naruto-kun, w-what was the red chakra that surrounded you w-when you tried to catch me on the bridge?" she asked.

"Red chakra?"

"Ano, w-when you grabbed me, y-you were s-surrounded by red chakra. Is it some kind of new ability?"

As soon as she finished, Naruto looked like he'd just been hit by about fifty Tsunade punches at once, as he realized she had seen his fox cloak, although she didn't know what it was. He was starting to panic when she mentioned it being a new ability.

"Yeah, that's it. It's a new ability I have. It makes me stronger and faster."

He had been slowly walking towards her while they were talking, and leaned rather close to her as he finished, which caused her to dive back under the blankets, as she had just realized that Naruto was only a few feet away from her, and the only thing preventing him from seeing her in her underwear was a small blanket.

Naruto realized the same thing as she dove under the blanket, and quickly retreated back to the fire. As soon as Kotaro saw his face, which was rather red, he started laughing, which resulted in him being hit on the head. Naruto quickly gathered up Hinata's now dry clothes, and tossed them onto the cot.

"Your clothes are dry now; I'll be back in a little bit so you can get dressed."

Not trusting herself to speak, she just nodded from under the blanket.

When he returned, he noticed that she was dressed, and had fallen asleep. Noticing that it was rather late, he too found a spot and fell asleep.

Naruto awoke to one of his favorite smells on earth. Instant Ramen. He got up and stretched, since falling asleep while sitting against a tree hadn't been the most comfortable position to sleep in. Naruto then snuck up behind Hinata before leaning very close to her ear and mumbled, "Mmmm, Ramen," which scared her so bad she flung the teapot she had been boiling water in (which still had water in it) at Naruto. Through a combination of luck, and the fact that Naruto had fallen over laughing, the metal teapot flew over his head.

"N-N-Naruto-kun, d-don't scare me l-l-like that," she stammered, as she tried to regain her composure.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help it," he replied, still laughing, "I'll try not to do it again."

After they ate, they packed up their camp, and headed off into the jungle. It wasn't a very easy trip. There were no branches they could jump between, and the ground covering was so thick, that they barely made any progress at all. By the end of the day, Naruto figured that they had gone about five miles or so from the river. And they were exhausted. So much so that they didn't even bother to make a fire. They just ate some jerky that Naruto had in his pack. After that, Naruto promptly sat down against a tree and fell asleep. Hinata soon followed, but managed to set up the cot first.

Hinata woke in the middle of the night to a thrashing sound. Thinking it might be a predator of some sort, she activated her Byakugan, but didn't see anything. She then noticed that the noise was coming from Naruto, who seemed to be having a nightmare. She walked over to him, and bent down to see if she could do anything. Much to her surprise, he grabbed her in his sleep, and set her in his lap. Even though she let out a startled "Eeep!" he didn't wake up. The more she struggled to get free, the tighter he held her. She eventually stopped trying to escape, and realized he wasn't thrashing around anymore. Pretty soon, she fell back asleep, blushing furiously.

When Naruto woke up his first thought was that he wasn't leaning against the tree anymore. His second thought was that a branch or something fell out of the tree, since there was a weight on his chest. When he tried to open his eyes to see what it was, all he could see was a deep, indigo blue. Once the object on his chest moaned and shifted a little, he realized that it wasn't a branch. It was Hinata. He shifted her sleeping form a little so he could see her face, and was amazed at how peaceful she looked. 'Like an angel,' he thought.

"Mmmmm," she mumbled while starting to wake up. She felt incredibly comfortable. She was content to stay in that perfect world of semi-consciousness; until she realized that it was moving up and down, as if it were breathing. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was a pair of the brightest blue orbs she'd ever seen.

"Hi." The voice came from the direction of the orbs, which she realized were eyes. And not just _any_ eyes, but _Naruto's_ eyes. And they were about six inches away from hers. The thought of where she was finally hit. She was lying on his chest, and her head had been against his neck. Her hands had been curled up between them, with her legs off to the side.

She tried to roll off of him as her face threatened to kill her by pulling all the blood in her body to her cheeks and forehead, but Naruto just grabbed her and didn't let her leave, which just made her face darker, if that was possible. She then tried to hide her face in his chest, which just made him laugh, until she decided to peek up at him.

"Ya know," he said, looking down at her, "you look kinda cute like that."

She replied to that the only way she knew how. She fainted.


	3. Chapter 3

**Ch 3**

After she passed out, Naruto had put her back on the cot, and then started trying to figure out where that comment had come from. He figured out that he had been having another nightmare, and had probably woken her up while he was flailing about, and he must have grabbed her when she came over to see if he was alright. The part that confused him was that she stayed there. And when he woke up, she seemed to be _enjoying_ it. If he had done that to Sakura, she would have promptly punched him in the face for grabbing her, and if, for whatever reason, she was to wake up on top of him like that, he would've ended up with a serious case of dead.

Since he'd met up with Sakura and Hinata, though, he felt different. Sure he still felt drawn to Sakura, but for some reason, he just didn't want to ask her out anymore. He couldn't explain why, he just didn't. Hinata, though, was a totally different story. Just looking at her made his heart speed up, and that was before his gaze went past her neck. He had tried repeatedly not to think about when he had removed her clothes after he got her out of the river, but he couldn't keep the images of what he had seen out of his mind. _'Damn, she's………perfect'_ he had thought. He knew he liked Sakura, but this was so much deeper.

He was brought out of his thoughts by Hinata returning to the conscious world, and they both decided to ignore how they'd woken up, since neither really knew what to say. They ate some wild berries for breakfast, and set out again. They walked for about an hour in silence, until Hinata decided to start a conversation.

"Ano, you said you were in the Chunin exam in Suna, right?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I was."

"Why didn't I see you there?"

"You were there?"

"Along with several clan members, yes. We came to watch my sister, Hanabi."

Naruto suddenly smirked. He had defeated Hanabi in the last match of the finals. "She lost in the final match, didn't she?"

"Yeah. It was a close match though."

"Tell me about it. Your family's techniques hurt like hell. I haven't been in that much pain since I fought Neji."

"You mean, that was you?"

"Yup," he said, as he Henge'd into the disguise he had used for the exam, "I kinda cheated in the first two parts though, my 'team' was just me and two clones. Hanabi was furious that I beat her. I just can't imagine her expression when she finds out it was me."

_Flashback_

It was the last match of the Chunin exam finals in Suna. Hyuuga Hanabi versus Sota Reiko, aka Naruto in disguise. The only people from Konoha were Tsunade, Jiraiya, Reiko, Hanabi, and some other Hyuugas. He was slightly disappointed that nobody came to see him, but since nobody except him, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Garra knew he was even there, it was kinda hard to have an audience. Glancing around the stands, he looked around at the people of Suna for a few moments, until his gaze landed on the kage box. Tsunade and Garra were there, along with his perverted sensei. He wanted to talk to the young Kazekage, but some random leaf Genin just walking up to a foreign leader and starting a conversation would've been too suspicious.

Naruto was brought out of his thoughts by the voice of the proctor asking them if they were ready to start. He looked to the proctor and nodded; Hanabi just glared, and activated her Byakugan.

"Final match, Sota Reiko vs. Hyuuga Hanabi, Begin!"

Hanabi immediately launched herself into a flurry of Jyuken strikes, most of which were aimed at his heart.

'_Damn, she's really goin' all out. With Kyuubi's chakra completely sealed right now, if she hits me I'm screwed. I won't be able to re-open my chakra points._'

Fortunately for him, she was burning through her chakra rather quickly. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't use any of his strong jutsu, for they would give him away almost instantly. The list of other people who could use the same moves as him was basically non-existent.

Tiring of just evading her attacks, he deliberately took a strike to his left arm, which, unfortunately for Hanabi, left her slightly unbalanced. The unbalance made her late in bringing up her guard, which allowed Reiko to land a crushing blow to Hanabi's jaw. She staggered back from the blow, unused to such force. This pattern continued for a while, Reiko deliberately taking a hit to unbalance Hanabi, and then landing a devastatingly powerful strike in the opening she left.

That wasn't all he was doing though. He was also taunting her quietly, so the rest of the Hyuugas present wouldn't hear. Things like her being weak, that she should give up, and that she couldn't beat him. She got angry at his comments, and her form became sloppy, making it even easier for Reiko to find openings, which in turn made her angrier.

Reiko wasn't just skating through the match, though. Every time he took a hit, she closed another point or two in whatever limb she hit. His left arm and legs were in a rather large amount of pain. Grinning in spite of the pain, he jumped back, and threw several kunai and shuriken at her, sending her into a hurried kaiten. It wasn't a perfect one, like Neji's always were, but it did the job. However, as soon as she stopped, he slammed his right fist into her left temple, knocking her out almost instantly.

Winner! Sota Reiko of Konoha!

_End Flashback_

Naruto paused for a moment, thinking back to when Hinata lost to Neji, "They didn't punish her too bad, did they?"

She looked away from him as he asked this, and took a moment to form her answer, trying to keep her voice steady. "She….wasn't punished."

"Huh?"

"Father was……..indifferent to the fact that she lost. Even though she didn't make chunin, he didn't punish her."

Naruto took note of the distant and pained look on her face as she spoke, for he wasn't near as dense as he had been when he left Konoha.

She continued after a moment, "He wants me to fight her when I return, the winner to become heir."

"What happens to the one who loses?" he asked.

"If I win, Hanabi will get the caged bird seal, and be placed in the Branch Family. If she wins, I will also get the seal, but I……….father said he'd kick me out of the clan if I lost."

Naruto was furious. To think that a man could do this to his own daughters sickened him. Even though he never had a family, he knew that what Hiashi was doing was wrong. He turned to Hinata before saying quietly, "I will find a way to stop this. Even if I have to take on the entire Hyuuga family by myself, I will help you fix your clan."

She looked at him, a little shocked. He was showing a side of himself that hardly anyone had seen before. Gone was the goofy grin, and obnoxiously loud voice. He was projecting an aura of quiet fierceness; his eyes radiated determination and power.

She was even more surprised when he summoned a three-tailed fox. The fox was a rich reddish-brown color, and big enough for them to ride on. She also noticed a black leather collar around its neck.

"How may I be of service, Naruto-sama?" the fox asked.

Taking note of the feminine voice, Hinata assumed the fox was female.

"How many times to I have to ask you not to call me that, Masami?" he said, "Anyway, I need you to carry us to the Hidden Cliff Village."

"That shouldn't be too difficult, Naruto-san. When do we leave?"

"As soon as Kotaro gets here. Oh, and you might want to cover your ears for this," he said, while taking a strange whistle out of his pocket, "you too, Hinata." Hinata noticed that Masami had had crouched down and covered her ears with her paws, and she noticed that Naruto was covering his own, the whistle held between his teeth. Just as she covered her own ears, he blew into the whistle. To her it seemed nothing happened, but to Masami, it looked painful.

"Did it work?" Hinata asked him, "I didn't hear anything."

"Most people can't. It's a fox whistle. Only animals can hear it. Kiba might be able to though, since he has heightened senses."

As he finished, Kotaro came bounding up out of the dense jungle, and jumped onto Masami's head. "Hi Masami," he said to the fox, "What do you want, Naruto?"

"We're leaving," he said, as he placed Hinata on Masami's back, "Now."

He jumped up and sat down behind Hinata, which surprised her. "Ano, shouldn't you be in front?" she asked.

"Normally yes, but until you get used to riding Masami, this way is safer."

"Oh."

As Masami stood up, she let out a slight 'Eeep' as Naruto reached around her waist to help hold her on. He showed her the handles on the collar, and they took off, crashing through the jungle. During the trip, once Hinata was comfortable enough to ride without hanging on, he started to teach her how to use shadow clones. He told her of the knowledge gathering ability, as well as some of their other traits and limitations. She took to it rather well, and by the end of the day, she could make a couple clones without problems.

When they stopped for the evening, Naruto decided that they spar a little so Hinata could get used to using shadow clones in battle. It didn't take her very long. Acquiring the knowledge of the defeated clones in battle was slightly disorienting to her, but Naruto explained that it would pass as she got used to them.

This continued for a couple more days, until they found their way back to the road. Finally having some space to walk unhindered, Naruto stopped summoning Masami and the pair just walked. After a couple more days of this, Hinata was starting to think they were lost.

"Ano, N-naruto-kun, are you s-sure you know w-w-where we're going?"

"Yup. In fact, we're almost there. As soon as I can find the symbol, we'll be all set."

"Symbol?"

"Hai. There should be a small fox symbol around here somewhere. Can you help me look for it? It should be about this big," he said, holding his hands a few inches apart, "it's part of one of my new abilities. The symbol of the fox resonates with my chakra and I can track whatever the symbol is on. It's just that I'm not very precise with it yet, and can only tell where it is down to about 20 meters or so," he finished, laughing nervously.

"S-sure, I'll help you look for it," Hinata responded, "Byakugan!"

She glanced around for a moment, until she found what Naruto had described. It was a rather crude carving of a fox, on a tree a short ways off the road.

"Naruto-kun, it's on a tree over there," she said, pointing him in the right direction.

"Yosh!" he exclaimed, as he went over to it.

Once he got to it, he pushed some chakra into it, and it flashed red for a moment. Words soon began forming below the fox symbol on the trunk of the tree, in a rather eerie red color, almost as if it were being written in blood by some invisible pen. Once all the words were visible, Naruto pulled out a scroll, and copied down the information. He then wiped his hand across the text on the tree and it vanished, along with the fox carving.

The directions led them a short ways farther down the trail, and had them stop at a rather non-descript chunk of cliff wall. Placing his hands on the surface of the wall, Naruto ran some chakra into the wall, and a portion of it swung open, allowing them to enter a short tunnel. After throwing a quick glance at each other, the pair made their way into the tunnel, which was lit by some strange glowing moss that covered the walls and ceiling.

They soon came to a door, and as soon as Naruto knocked on it, they were instantly surrounded by cliff nins, all of whom were brandishing kunai.

Naruto was the first to break the silence, "Uhh, hi."

The only visible reaction from the cliff nins was one of them starting glaring at him a little harder.

Naruto continued, "We're looking for Ero-se… I mean Jiraiya of the Sannin."

The cliff nins responded with more silence, until one finally spoke, "And what makes you think he's here?"

"I can feel his chakra through the door," Naruto replied, before turning to Hinata, "Can you look through the door and make sure he's there?"

Despite the shock of being yanked out of her daydream, she was able to comprehend his question. "H-hai," She replied, before activating her eyes to see through the door. "H-he's there, Naruto-kun," she said quietly, since the tunnel was making everything echo.

Making sure to move slowly, Naruto slowly reached into one of his pockets, and pulled out a small piece of metal. It looked kinda like a forehead protector, but without the cloth band, and it had the kanji for toad on it. He ran some chakra through it, and it glowed briefly, after which he slowly put it back in his pocket. "He'll be here shortly," he told the guards, and sure enough, about five minutes later, the gate opened, and out stepped the sannin.

"It's ok, they're with me," he told the guards, who finally relaxed, and put away their kunai. They soon vanished back to their posts, hidden in the shadows of the rough rock walls of the tunnel.

As they walked through the village, Naruto and Hinata told Jiraiya about what happened to them after they fell off the bridge. Or, rather, Naruto told Jiraiya and Hinata just mumbled quietly.

"Oh, Naruto, I got a message from Tsunade, she said that she found an important document relating to you. More specifically, your past," Jiraiya told Naruto.

Naruto looked confused for a moment, before his face lit up, "You mean she found my bi-"

Jiraiya cut him off, "Shhhh, and yes, she found 'that document' you asked her to look for."

"Ano, what document w-was she looking for?" Hinata asked.

Naruto looked at Jiraiya with a very obvious can-I-tell-her-please look, and Jiraiya just looked at him for a moment, debating the pros and cons of letting Naruto tell her what kind of document Tsunade was looking for. "Fine, but not here. Let's go back to the hotel. You can tell Sakura too." As he finished, he gave Naruto a look that plainly said you-will-tell-both-or-neither-of-them.

"Why are we still standing around here? Let's go!" Naruto exclaimed.

They hurried back to the hotel, which would've been better described as a bunch of shacks with a few common walls. It was in a rather poor state, with peeling paint, rusty hinges, and the roof looked like it might cave in at any moment.

"This is the hotel?" Naruto asked, obviously having something more 'hotel-ish' in mind.

"I know it isn't much, but it's all they have. This area doesn't really attract tourists."

Once they all were inside the hotel, Jiraiya cast a sound barrier to keep them from being overheard. "Go ahead, Naruto."

"Baa-chan found my birth certificate!" he exclaimed; "Now I can learn who my parents are!" He turned to Jiraiya, "So where is it? I wanna see it."

The two girls were still in shock that Naruto would learn who his parents were. This one piece of information, which everyone else had their whole lives, he had lived his whole life, until now anyway, without.

Naruto was still looking expectantly at the Sannin. "What? I don't have it with me," Jiraiya said, brining the girls out of their stupor, "You actually think Tsunade would send something like that? Besides confirming that she found it, all she said was that both of your parents are dead, and that you can see the real thing when we get back to Konoha."

Naruto's face fell with the mention that both his parents were dead. Eventually, he just curled up in a corner and seemed to fall asleep. The other three gave him space, and also turned in for the night.


	4. Chapter 4

**Ch 4**

When they awoke the next morning, Naruto was gone. A quick search of the village showed he wasn't there either. Regrouping at the hotel, they noticed all his stuff was gone, too, and came to the conclusion that he was outside the village, and, according to Jiraiya, was probably training to let out his pent up emotions.

Sure enough, the trio found him a short ways away from the village, in a small clearing. To their surprise, however, there was no evidence of him training, at least not the kind they were expecting. There were no craters, damaged trees, or any other disturbance to the environment. What they found was Naruto sitting there with four large scrolls in front of him, and several tossed around the clearing, and seeing as how they were all crumpled up, apparently worthless.

Sakura was the first to speak, "Naruto, what are you doing?" Never in her wildest dreams did she ever picture Naruto in this type of situation.

When he spoke, he was uncharacteristically quiet. "I figured out a way to get us home by tomorrow night."

Hinata spoke next, "H-how is that p-possible? It took Sakura-san and I two weeks to get here."

"I'm gonna summon us all to the forest outside Konoha. Well, you're gonna summon yourselves there. That's what the scrolls are for. I already checked to make sure it would work, and Kotaro is there making sure nothing disturbs the landing scrolls."

He looked to the girls, "Do either of you summon?" he asked.

"Tsunade-sama has thought about letting us both sign Katsuyu's contract, but we haven't yet," replied Sakura.

Naruto showed them the needed hand signs, and said, "Do these signs, and then pour as much chakra into the seal as you can. They won't trigger until you use enough, and don't worry about using too much. Just go one at a time and I'll catch you." With that said, Naruto ran through the seals, shouted "Kuchiyose no jutsu," and vanished in a cloud of smoke, along with the scroll he had stood on.

"Jiraiya-sama, what did he mean by 'catch us'?" Sakura asked.

"Oh, nothing really," he replied, "It's just that if you use too much chakra, you tend to show up a few feet off the ground. The first time Naruto did it, he used _way_ too much, and ended up appearing even with the top of a tree, but don't worry," he said, seeing the scared looks emerging on their faces, "Neither of you have anywhere near enough chakra to show up that high. So then, which one of you is going first?"

The two girls just looked at each other for a moment, before Sakura volunteered to go. She unrolled one of the remaining scrolls, gathered her chakra, and with a cry of "Kuchiyose no jutsu" vanished in a puff of smoke. With a quick look at Jiraiya, Hinata grabbed herself a scroll, spread it out, and tried to prepare herself to be summoned. She gathered her chakra, took a deep breath, slammed her hand to the ground, and shouted "Kuchiyose no jutsu."

Needless to say, it wasn't what she was expecting. It was worse. It felt like someone was trying to squeeze her insides out through her mouth, along with severe disorientation and nausea. As suddenly as they came, the squeezing feeling and disorientation went away, just in time for her to realize she was ten feet in the air with nothing between her and the ground but the scroll she used to get there.

She braced herself as she fell, expecting to slam into the ground, but to her surprise landed in a set of strong and muscular arms. Arms that curled under back and knees, so she basically landed bridal style in those arms. As she regained her bearings, she noticed that it was Naruto who caught her. She also noticed Sakura in the arms of a Naruto clone, right before she punched it in the face, causing it to dispel, which in turn dumped her onto the ground. Grumbling loudly, she tried to get up, only to be overcome by nausea, fall over again, and throw up.

Blushing madly, Hinata realized that Naruto still hadn't put her down, and was walking over to some trees. He gently set her down under one of them, and went back to get Sakura. She shook her head, and as she tried to stand again, lost her balance. Only this time, Naruto caught her, swung her up in his arms the same way he had carried Hinata, and carried her over to where Hinata was sitting, and set Sakura down next to her.

While Naruto waited for them to recover, he sat a short ways away from them, deep in thought. Or, rather, that's what it looked like he was doing. He was actually having a conversation with his inner captive.

"**Hey, Kit, I'm sorry about your parents."**

This shocked the blond. While it was true that the fox inside him had gotten much nicer over the four years he had been traveling with the perverted sage, the fox had never spoken to him like this before.

He wasn't the only one who felt strange about the admission. Kyuubi was busy trying to figure out exactly when he had started to care so much about the mental well-being of his container. Being sealed inside of Naruto did allow him partial access to his thoughts and memories, and he actually felt bad about the way Naruto had been treated as a child, although he was at the same time surprised that the boy had never snapped or lost his optimistic view on life.

'Thanks. It means a lot.'

Before the fox could continue, Jiraiya appeared, and it seemed that the girls had recovered as well, as they were walking over to Naruto. Hinata was staring at the ground a few feet in front of her, and Sakura looked like she was gonna kill Naruto as soon as he got within arms reach of her.

Much to his surprise, however, she didn't hit him. She didn't even yell at him. She just glared at him for a moment before saying, "Thanks for catching us."

He laughed nervously, "No problem."

"If you ever do that again, though-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, you'll kick my ass, beat me to within an inch of my life, and so on. Let's just get going, ok? I wanna know who my parents are." With that, he turned to start walking towards Konoha, but only made it a few steps before he fell over. '_I guess those three trips summoning myself took a lot out of me. Must be the distance, 'cause it wasn't ever this bad before, even when I did it all day._'

As soon as he fell over, Hinata had activated her Byakugan to scan the area, but didn't see any enemies. Once she was sure they were alone, she focused her attention on the fallen blond. Realizing he was just low on chakra, she relaxed considerably, and was just about to release the technique when the red bit of chakra in his stomach started to glow, and slowly filled his system, replacing the pale blue color of normal chakra.

Meanwhile, Naruto was experiencing the release of the fox's chakra with a bit of trepidation. The only times the fox had given him chakra without him asking had been when he was trying to take over his mind, although he hadn't tried to do that for a few years now. As he was about to speak to the fox, his unasked question was answered.

"**Don't worry, I'm not taking over. I'm not interested in doing that anymore. I knew you were about to ask for my chakra and simply provided it without you asking. Now get up, you got somewhere to be, and it isn't here."**

The recent nice behavior from the fox was starting to weird him out a little, but he decided to not say anything about it, since if the fox was being nice, he most certainly didn't want him to stop on his account. '_Who knows?_' he thought, '_maybe he's going soft._'

"**I heard that, and I'm **_**not**_** going soft. Maybe I should just stick to being mean, at least then you had a reason to insult me."**

'_Ok, ok, you're not going soft, and it's a nice change for you to be nice, I just wasn't expecting it._'

"**Whatever."**

Naruto decided then to leave the fox alone. He was right, too. Naruto had somewhere to be, and a clearing in the woods wasn't it.

He was brought up short on leaving again, this time by Hinata, Byakugan still active, who was staring rather intently at him. "W-why do you have two ch-chakras?" she asked.

"I…..I'll tell you later, okay? You too, Sakura-chan. It's kinda complicated, and I don't want to go into it right now."

With that, he turned around, and starting walking towards the village. The rest of them just stood there in shock for a few minutes, before running to catch up with Naruto. By the time they did, he was back in his orange and black coat and pants, and his forehead protector was back in its proper place. He didn't acknowledge their presence in any noticeable way, so they carried on in silence, save the sound of their feet on the ground, and Kotaro's quiet snoring as he lay on Naruto's pack.

It was near midnight when they got to the gates, and surprisingly enough, the guards let them pass unhindered. Heedless of the time, Naruto marched right to the Hokage tower, intent on finding out his lineage, whether Tsunade was there or not.

Tsunade had just finished her paperwork for the day, and was looking forward to the sake she had hidden in her desk when Shizune came in. "You have guests, Tsunade-sama."

"It's midnight; tell them to come back tomorrow."

"It's Naruto."

"Eh? How'd he get back so fast?"

"I summoned us back, that's how. Now let me see it," Naruto demanded as he stormed into her office. He was clearly distressed by the whole situation, but wasn't yelling like he used to. It was quite the opposite; he was very quiet, and his voice had lost that care-free exuberance, and had taken on a rather hard edge.

Tsunade looked at him for a moment, before sighing, "Alright, but you'll want to sit down for this." She pulled open a drawer in her desk and pulled out a rather old scroll. "It was stuck in a box of the Thirds old stuff, that's why it took so long to find."

Naruto grabbed it, and started opening it, ignoring her comment about sitting down. Those present in the room watched his eyes scan the aged paper for a moment, until his eyes grew large, and he fell backwards into a chair. He sat there in a daze for a few moments, until Sakura picked up the fallen paper, and read it for herself.

_This document is to certify that Uzumaki Naruto was born on the tenth day of October, to Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina. Official witness to the birth: Hatake Kakashi._

The rest of the words on the paper were lost to her as she numbly held the paper out so Hinata could read it. Her brain was on overload. '_Naruto is the son of the Fourth? I never knew the Fourth had a child. They do look similar, I guess._'

"He knew," Naruto said quietly, bringing the girls out of their shock-induced stupors, "He knew. This whole time he knew who my parents were and he never told me."

Just then, Kakashi happened to walk into Tsunade's office. The birth certificate had made its way back to Naruto, and he had it clenched in his fist. Naruto immediately began tearing into Kakashi, demanding to know why he never mentioned his lineage. After several minutes, Kakashi was finally able to defend himself, and he began his explanation.

"Naruto, I want to begin by apologizing to you. I was ordered by the Fourth to not tell you until you turned eighteen." Kakashi pulled a piece of scroll out from his pouch, and gave it to Naruto. "Those were his final words to me. To keep you safe, protect you, and when I deemed you strong enough, to tell you about your parents. I was planning on telling you when you got back, but it would seem that Tsunade-sama beat me to it. You are also to be given the rest of the belongings of your family."

Tsunade continued, "That is correct. You, Naruto, are to receive your family house, all of its contents, and you are to inherit your family's rather substantial financial assets. Congratulations, Naruto, you are now one of the richest people in Konoha."

It was too much for the blond ninja. He went from being an orphan with no past or family to being the son of the greatest ninja in Konoha's history, from living in a tiny-ass run down apartment that he was massively overcharged for, to owning one of the nicest houses in the village. His brain went into overload, and he fainted.

Naruto awoke to white. As he got his bearings, he realized that the white ceiling he was looking at was the white ceiling of the hospital. He peeked under the sheets, '_At least I'm still dressed. They must not intend for me to stay very long,_' he thought.

He looked over as Sakura walked into his room. "Geez, Naruto, how much chakra did you use yesterday? By the time we got you checked out, you were suffering from one of the worst cases of chakra exhaustion I've ever seen. Any normal person would've probably died. Hey, are you even paying attention to me?"

"Gomen, Sakura, but when can I go?" The question caught her completely off guard. Not because of the question, since he asked it every time he was in the hospital, but in the way he asked it. He said it quietly, his voice betraying little of what he felt, and he said it to the sheet he was lying under, instead of to her.

"Uh, yeah, you can go, just……….don't push yourself for a couple days, ok?" Sakura said slowly, still recovering from the shock of his mood change, "Hey, you sure you're alright? You can talk to me, anytime, if you need someone to listen, alright?"

It took him a minute before he responded, saying "I'll be fine. I just need some time to let it all sink in, I guess. So stop worrying about me. I'll be alright."

With that being said, he got off the hospital bed, and walked out of the hospital.

The view of Konoha from on top of the Fourth's head was the best in the village. If the light was right, the main gate was even visible. The great view was lost on the current occupier of the head, however, as he sat with his back to the cliff, staring at his lap. It was his place to be alone. Well, on his terms anyway. He used to come here to escape the mobs that tried to beat him senseless when he was a child. Once he started pranking the village, he would go there to hide from the chunin sent to find him. Nowadays he came here to think. And that's what Naruto was doing; sitting on his father's head, thinking.

At some point, he fell asleep, because he awoke suddenly to find it was dark out, probably close to midnight. He was about to head back to his apartment, when he realized that he didn't own it anymore. His next thought was to go to his new place of residence, but he never got around to asking where it was, so that was out. So, with a rather large sigh, he leaned back against the cliff wall, and fell back into a restless sleep.

When he next awoke, it was early morning. As he got up and stretched to relieve his sore muscles, he decided that now was as good a time as any to tell Hinata and Sakura about Kyuubi. His stretching completed, he went off towards the hospital to find Sakura. When he got there, he asked the receptionist where Sakura was, only to be told she had the day off. After getting her address, he then went off to find her house. When he got there, he knocked on the door, but got no answer. He peeked in the window to see if she was home, and saw a door closing. '_Well, at least she's here,_' he thought. Realizing he would start attracting unwanted attention to himself soon, he tried the door and found it unlocked.

With a bit of unease, he let himself in to Sakura's apartment. It was a decent size, probably two bedrooms, and contained simple furniture. He didn't care much for the colors, given the fact that Sakura had decorated it. It was all in pastel colors. As he was taking in how the room looked, he heard the shower come on.

Realizing that he would have to wait awhile for her to finish, he sat on the couch, and opened his link with Kyuubi.

'_Hey, Kyuubi, you there?_'

"**No, I'm currently laying on a tropical beach somewhere, enjoying one of those drinks with the umbrellas in it, you dumbass. Of course I'm here."**

'_Damn, keep your panties on. I just wanted to talk._'

"**What about?"**

'_About what you were going to say yesterday, before Ero-sennin appeared._'

"**Oh, that. I was going to tell you a little bit about your parents, more specifically your mother."**

'_You mean, you knew my mother?_'

"**Yes. I knew her quite well, as well as her family. You see, her family was in possession of the fox contract, before it was destroyed."**

'_Destroyed? What happened?_'

"**The Hidden Whirlpool Village was attacked and destroyed about twenty-five years ago. That is where your mother came from. They were attacked by rock-nin. They asked Konoha for help, but it didn't arrive in time. She was one of the only survivors, and sought refuge in Konoha. She somehow caught the eye of the Fourth, and I think you can figure it out from there."**

'_Ok, I get that, but if you were my family's summon, why did you attack Konoha?_'

"……**.."**

'_Kyuubi?_'

Concerned by the fact that he wasn't being answered, he dove fully into his mindscape, appearing before the giant cage. What he saw completely floored him. Kyuubi, the greatest and strongest of all the tailed beasts, was crying. He was about to ask what was going on, when the fox suddenly looked up, and said, **"You better get back out there. I just heard that shower turn off."**

As Naruto's mindscape faded from his view to be replaced by Sakura's pastel colored living room, Kyuubi spoke again, **"Tell them about me. I'll tell you all why I attacked the village then, ok?"** Kyuubi's voice was still broken from crying, and Naruto decided to give the fox some privacy to deal with his emotions. It was a good thing he did, because right then, Sakura exited her bathroom wearing only a towel.

As soon as Naruto heard the bathroom door open, he stood up and turned to face it, figuring she would exit dressed. Once she stepped out, he immediately realized she wasn't dressed, slammed his eyes shut, and stood stock still in her living room.

While Sakura was in the shower, she heard the front door open, but figured it was just Hinata coming back from shopping, since the Hyuuga girl was staying with her for the time being. She finished her shower, wrapped a towel around herself, and exited the bathroom. She looked into the living room, expecting to see Hinata. Who she saw was definitely not Hinata. Naruto was the one standing before her, with his eyes shut as tight as he could get them.

She stood there for a moment, until the still functioning part of her brain finally took over. She quickly wrapped her arms around herself, and screamed at Naruto, "AHHHHH! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?" as she ran back into the bathroom.

Once Naruto heard the door close, he cracked open one eye. Realizing that the towel-clad Sakura had retreated back into the bathroom, he opened his eyes fully. He slowly approached the bathroom door. "I'm sorry for barging in here like that, but can you meet me when you're done? I…. I want to tell you some stuff." As soon as he finished, he walked out of Sakura's apartment, and headed off to find Hinata. He found her as he was crossing the market, and as he tried to catch up to her, he realized that she wasn't heading for the Hyuuga manor, but back towards Sakura's apartment.

He then realized that he forgot to tell Sakura where to meet him, so he followed Hinata back to the apartment. When he got there, he knocked, this time louder, and Hinata answered.

"N-naruto-kun? W-what are y-y-you doing here?"

"I just wanted to let you know, if you're still interested in my two chakras, meet me on the Fourth's head when Sakura is done getting ready." He said it loud enough for Sakura to hear, and then immediately turned and left, heading towards the meeting place.


	5. Chapter 5

**Ch 5**

About twenty minutes later, the girls met up with Naruto on top of the Fourth's head. They found him leaning against the cliff face, his jacket and shirt on the ground next to him, the necklace given to him by Tsunade glinting in the sunlight. Both of them had to suppress blushes upon seeing him shirtless. His muscles had become rather well defined in his travels.

"So, we're here," Sakura said. Naruto kept looking up at the sky for a few minutes, before continuing.

"Before I start, I just want to let you know that if you decide to hate me after I'm done, I don't blame you. I won't ever bother you again." The girls just looked at him, shock and confusion on their faces. "You both know that I have two chakras. One 'blue,'" he held up his right hand, channeled some of his chakra into it, and it glowed blue, "and one 'red,'" he did the same thing with his left hand, only putting fox chakra into it, so it glowed red. He then cut the flow to his hands, and instead channeled some to his stomach, showing his seal.

"What is that?" asked Sakura.

"This is why I have two chakras. Seventeen years ago, the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, for reasons currently unknown. My f..father, the Fourth, was able to defeat him, not by killing him, like we were all taught, but by sealing him. The Kyuubi was sealed into an infant. Me……"

Both girls just stared at him in shock. The dead last of their class, the loudest, kindest, most surprising ninja of his generation, was the holder of the fiercest and most destructive creature known to man. The nine tailed fox, Kyuubi no Kitsune.

After the silence stretched past the minute mark, Naruto hung his head, tears beginning to flow down his whiskered cheeks. "The villagers just see me as a monster, the council as a weapon for war. Almost nobody who knows sees me for me." He slowly sank into a sitting position.

Both girls walked over, stopping in front of him. "Stand up," Sakura said, it coming out with a rather hard edge to it. Naruto slowly got back to his feet, but still didn't look at them. "Look at me, Naruto." He slowly brought his eyes up to meet her emerald gaze, and they just stared at each other for a while, tears still flowing down Naruto's cheeks. He thought that Sakura was going to attack him, since her fists were clenched tightly, but what she did was completely expected. She reached her left hand behind Hinata, and pushed them both into hugs with the blond. Needless to say, he was beyond shocked.

He had just told his darkest secret to two of his most important people, and they still accepted him, even knowing what he was.

"Growing up I was alone. I lived in an orphanage until the age of five, when the Third got me that apartment. The ladies who ran the orphanage hated me. They would hit me for no reason, skip feeding me, and lock me outside, even in the winter. Once I got the apartment, people would break in and steal things; sometimes they just trashed the place and didn't take anything. The Third had a law passed that prevented anyone who knew I held the fox from telling the younger generations, even me. I didn't even know I held the fox until I finished the academy."

Sakura looked up at him, surprising because she, too, was crying. "I…I'm sorry, Naruto, for the way I acted and treated you when we were younger, no, don't interrupt, I'm not done yet. My parents are among those who…..hated you when you were younger. They tried to get me to hate you in the academy, but I never understood why they wanted me to. When they found out that we were on the same team, they were furious. They even went to the Third to try and get you kicked out. If you want, we can even go do something later, if you're still interested."

Neither Hinata nor Naruto could believe how Sakura had ended her apology. Hinata was mad that Sakura was hitting on Naruto, and Naruto was in shock that after all this time, she seemed to be returning some of his feelings for her. "Sure, we can go out later," Hinata's heart plummeted as she heard the exchange, "but I don't see you that way anymore. I see you more like a sister." Hinata's heart soared into the heavens at Naruto's comment.

Sakura just nodded her head, smiling slightly, "That's ok. I wasn't going to let you go out with me or anything."

Hinata, having finally found her voice, spoke next, "S-so th-that's why you p-pulled all those pranks? For the attention?"

"Uh huh. It gave people a reason to see me for me. To acknowledge that I exist. I thought that if everybody refused to acknowledge me of their own free will, then I would just have to make them do it. The original reason I wanted to be Hokage was to force everyone to acknowledge my abilities."

"So when you fought Haku on the bridge, that was the fox's chakra?"

"Mmhmmm. It was the fox's chakra that let me break the ice mirrors, but I wasn't really in control of it back then."

"What do you mean?"

"Back then, all the fox was concerned about was getting out of the seal and taking over my body. With all my emotions out of control, the fox tried to take over. Fortunately I was able to restrain him."

"**Kit, it's time. Let me out so I can say my piece."**

"Naruto, are you ok?"

"Huh?"

"Your eyes just glazed over for a second."

"Oh, that was just Kyuubi talking to me."

"He talks to you?"

"Yeah. We came to an agreement about a year after I left that he wouldn't try to take over or anything like that. Oh, and he wants to talk to you two, as well."

Naruto suddenly did a couple quick seals and said, "Kyuubi Bunshin no Jutsu."

As the smoke cleared, there was a cat sized red fox on Naruto's right shoulder, complete with nine tails.

"**Hey, what's the meaning of this? I'm supposed to be the most fearsome beast in existence, not some damn house pet!"**

"I know, that's why I made you so small. I didn't want you to scare Sakura-chan and Hinata-chan."

"**Oh, that makes sense."**

Both girls had backed a few feet away from Naruto as he performed his seals, and seemed rather scared of Kyuubi.

"**Would you mind making me at least a little bit bigger? You know, like the usual size?"**

"Alright, fine." Naruto re-did his seals, and Kyuubi re-emerged from the smoke feeling much better. Whereas before he had been the size of a house cat, he was now eye-level with the three chunin.

"**Ahhh, much better."**

He caught the seemingly scared looks the girls were wearing, **"Chill out. I'm not gonna attack you. I couldn't even if I wanted to. This body is just a normal bunshin. It has no real substance."**

Both girls' expressions went from being shocked and scared to something very different. Neither Naruto nor Kyuubi could identify the emotion. The girls, now knowing that Kyuubi couldn't kill them, both screamed "KAWAIIIII!!!" and tackled the fox, which miraculously didn't vanish, and started petting him, and playing with his tails.

"**Hey! Just what the hell do you two think you're doing? I'm the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the greatest demon in the world, not some kids toy!"**

They both backed off, "Gomen."

Once he regained his composure, the fox related the tale he had told Naruto earlier, about his status with his mother's family, and the destruction of the whirlpool village.

"**Now that you're all on the same page, I will continue. Seeing as to the fact that the village our contract holders belonged to was destroyed, along with the contract and all who had signed it, I moved the fox clan to the forests outside Konoha. We became guardians of the forest, if you will. Kushina-sama would come to visit us regularly, and we helped protect the village and its surroundings." **

The fox's expression changed then. Up until now it had shown sorrow, anger, pride, and contentment, but it soon switched to one of severe sadness, depression, and pain.

"**My mate had just given birth to a litter of kits, we had four of them, hadn't even been named yet. I briefly left them to inform the rest of the clan of the births, and when I returned, they were all****….."**

At this point, many large tears began falling from the fox's cheeks. He paused for awhile, trying to reign in his emotions.

"**They had all been killed. The blood still flowed from their wounds. I found several Konoha shinobi that my mate had killed, as well as a strong smell of snakes. I…. lost control, attacked Konoha. I was in such a rage that even the words of Kushina-sama and Minato-sama were unable to stop me. It took me fourteen years to finally forgive the leaf village, since it was not their doing. As I'm sure you guessed, the one responsible was Orochimaru."**

"**While on his travels with that massive pervert, the Kit and I made a deal. In order for me to atone for attacking the village, I would put my all into helping him protect it."**

Naruto slowly walked up to the fox and began slowly scratching his ears. He kept scratching for a few minutes, until the great fox seemed to calm down. "Arigato, Kyuubi," he said, as he dispelled the bunshin.

Sakura spoke next, "So, uh, what kind of benefits do you get from this 'deal'?"

"Well, my chakra control went through the roof, I have full access to Kyuubi's chakra, I can summon foxes, oh, and I have access to almost all of the jutsu's that Kyuubi knows, too."

"Wow."

"Thank you, by the way."

Naruto's statement caught them both off-guard.

"Wh-what do y-y-you mean, Naruto-kun?"

"Neither one of you abandoned me when you found out about Kyuubi."

Both girls came up to him and hugged him tight, Hinata's blush hitting near maximum.

"As if. Just because we now know you have some kinda huge bad-ass fox sealed inside of you doesn't change the fact that you're you."

Naruto's stomach took that moment to let loose a massive roar of hunger. So the trio set off to find some lunch, since it was close to noon. Naruto headed straight to Ichiraku's, only to find, much to his horror, that the shop was closed. They ended up eating at a barbecue restaurant. After lunch, they swung by Tsunade's office to figure out where his new house was, and after being shown where it was, and receiving the keys, they left to go check it out.

When they found it, they were kinda surprised. It was kinda off by itself, surrounded by woods, and two stories tall, painted white, with brown trim. There was a ten foot wall around the yard, with a large gate in the middle. They entered the Namikaze compound, and right as they were about to enter the building itself, Sakura caught a glimpse of a sundial, and realized that she was supposed to be at the hospital a half-hour ago. So, with some quick good-byes, she dashed off to work, leaving Naruto and a rather red Hinata alone together.

They entered the house, to find everything covered in dust. They wandered around the first floor, opening windows as they went. They found the kitchen, dining area, living room with a fireplace, a bathroom, and some stairs down to a pantry in the basement. Upstairs they found two guest rooms, a library, another bathroom, and two locked doors.

Hinata tried to look through the walls to see why they were locked, but found, to her amazement, that her Byakugan couldn't see through any walls of the house!

Naruto just stared at the door for a moment, before walking up to it and pushing some chakra into it. They heard a sharp 'click' and the door swung open, revealing the master bedroom. His parents' room. Not feeling comfortable in there, he turned to the other locked door, and when he opened it, he almost collapsed. It was another bedroom, but everything in this one was small. It was colored in a combination of light blue and white, with small fox designs. He had found his room.

Hinata, who was still in the master bedroom, turned to ask Naruto a question, and found that he wasn't there anymore. As she went to go find him, she realized he was in the other locked room. She found him on the floor, leaning against the wall, crying. While trying to figure out how to comfort him, she looked around the room, and realized what room she was in. So, blushing furiously, she slowly crouched down in front of him.

Naruto was so lost in his emotions; he didn't even realize Hinata had joined him on the floor. She hesitantly reached her hand out to him, aiming for his shoulder. When she finally made contact, she startled him. "Hina….ta?"

She had pulled her hand back when he looked up, and the sight of his face almost made her start crying. His normally bright blue eyes were bloodshot and puffy, tears streamed down his whiskered cheeks. His breathing was ragged and unsteady. Eventually he managed to stand up again, and headed outside, Hinata trailing right behind him.

What they found once they got outside, however, wasn't what they were expecting. There was a person standing outside the front door. It took Naruto a few moments to collect himself before he was able to speak. "Kakashi-sensei?" he finally asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Yo, Naruto, Hinata, Tsunade-sama wants to speak to you two right away. She's waiting in her office." As soon as he finished speaking, he vanished in a puff of smoke.

When they got there, there was a man in the office with Tsunade. Turns out he had requested an escort to the next village, which was why she had called for Naruto. "I know you just got back, but the village isn't that far. You should be back before it gets dark. Now hurry up, and don't complain about it."

Naruto, who hadn't even looked at her the whole time he was in her office just turned to the man there and said, "Hai, let's go," before turning and leaving. Needless to say, Tsunade was quite shocked. Not only had he not complained about the mission, he hadn't even called her baa-chan.

A short while later, the two young shinobi's met up at the gates, only to find that Sakura was waiting there for them, along with the client. Naruto just tipped his head to the others and said, "Let's go," before walking out to the village. Sakura looked at Naruto in shock. Never once had he acted like this. She then looked over to Hinata with a very confused expression on her face, which made the Hyuuga just shake her head before giving her companion a 'I'll-tell-you-later-because-we-shouldn't-discuss-personal-problems-in-front-of-clients' look.

The three ninjas managed to deliver their charge without incident, and were on their way home when Sakura next asked about Naruto's strangely quiet mood. She leaned close to Hinata and quietly asked, "So what happened?"

Hinata just kept walking for a few moments, before replying with, "We explored the house after you left. He was fine until we found two locked doors on the second floor. One was his parents' room." She trailed off, looking at Naruto, who had been listening to them.

Sakura looked to Naruto, "So what was behind the other door?" A pained look crossed Naruto's face. "If you don't feel comfortable telling me right now, that's fine, too," she said quickly, seeing his expression.

"No, it's ok. The other door led to… my room. I'll be back to normal before too long. I just need time to get used to the changes, that's all."

The rest of the mission passed with the three just talking about whatever came to mind, and by the time they got back, Naruto was basically back to normal. When they got to the village gates, Sakura split off from the group, saying that she would handle the mission report for them, and that she would see them later. As Naruto and Hinata watched her leave, Naruto suddenly realized Hinata couldn't go home. She was supposed to be back in two weeks, which was when the fight with her sister was scheduled, and needed to prepare for it. If she went home now, the fight would take place the next day, and she wasn't ready for it yet.

Seeing her predicament, Naruto offered to let her stay in the other guest room, since he wasn't ready to sleep in his parents' bed and would be using the first guest room for awhile.

"Eh?"

"I asked if you wanted to stay with me, Hinata, since you can't go back home right now."

"Na-Naruto-kun, are y-you sure you w-want me to stay?" she asked timidly, while her blush was flaring dangerously. '_Two weeks with Naruto-kun? Alone? Even if it's only for training, I hope I don't disappoint him…_'

"Of course I want you to stay!" he blurted, "I mean, if you don't want to, you don't have to, I just thought that it would easier for you to stay with me since I'm helping you train for your fight with your sister."

"I…I w-would like that…" she replied, her cheeks alight.

With that, the pair set off towards his new house.


	6. Chapter 6

**Ch 6**

The next two weeks passed by in a blur for Hinata. All of her time was spent training with Naruto. They woke up, ate breakfast, trained, ate lunch, trained, ate dinner, trained, and slept. Every day, for two straight weeks, that's all they did. And it helped. All who were present at the Hyuuga Estate could tell, just from the way she moved. There was more confidence in it. By no means was she not shy anymore, but she was less shy.

Hinata looked around the Hyuuga grounds, trying to pick familiar faces out of the crowd. It wasn't as hard as she feared, since all the non-Hyuugas were rather obvious. Sakura was the closest, since she was the medic-on-hand in case either was seriously injured. She saw Ten-ten, sitting next to Neji, near the other branch members. Shino, Kiba, and Kurenai were behind her, to show support for their team-mate. Tsunade was there as well, although only because Hinata had asked her to. The one face she wanted to see most, though, she couldn't find.

She had parted ways with Naruto earlier that morning, and he had told her then that he would be there in a little while. Suddenly, though, she felt his chakra, and although she couldn't see him, she relaxed knowing that he was there. She still hadn't admitter her feelings for him, even though they had been alone together for the last two weeks, but she felt that she was a lot closer to accomplishing her goal.

'_Maybe if I win, I'll be able to tell him………maybe,'_ she was interrupted from further thoughts by the arrival of both her sister and her father. _'Well, here we go. Watch me, Naruto-kun.'_

She stood calmly as her father motioned for the crowd to be silent.

"We are gathered here today to see which of my daughters shall bear the title of heir to the Hyuuga clan. The winner shall receive the title, and the loser shall be sealed and placed into the branch family."

He continued speaking, but Hinata wasn't paying attention anymore. She was mentally preparing herself for the fight ahead, for as much as she wanted to win, and finally be acknowledged by her father, she didn't want Hanabi to be sealed into the branch family either. Nor did she want to be sealed, since if she was, she wouldn't be able to bring about the much needed change in the clan.

Noticing that her father had finished speaking, she sunk into her opening stance, as Hanabi did the same, flashing through some quick signs to activate her Byakugan. Hinata did the same, only she no longer needed the signs for it. Hiashi raised his hand, glanced between the fighters, dropped his hand with a call of "Begin!" and jumped out of the way.

The two sisters charged at each other, engaging in a furious swarm of palm strikes, neither able to land a clean hit. This continued for several minutes, until they both jumped back, breathing heavily. Strangely, though, there were no words exchanged between them. They stared each other down for a second, until Hanabi suddenly pulled her hands back near her left hip, gathering her chakra, before thrusting them forward, shouting "Juuho Soushiken" as the blast took on the form of twin lion heads as it rushed at Hinata. She just raised her arms and began her defense, murmuring, "Shugo Hakke Rokujuuyonshou" as her chakra deflected her sister's attack.

The crowd looked on in awe. The non-Hyuuga members because they had no idea that Hanabi was that powerful, and those of the clan because Hanabi knew that move. It was supposed to only be taught to the clan heir; Hiashi had obviously made his choice as to who he wanted to lead the clan.

Hinata took this moment to address her father, "I see you have made your choice," she said, surprising all present by speaking without her normal stutter, "there is no reason for me to continue, if you're not even going to give me the chance to prove myself." She then turned, as if to leave, but the sudden appearance of the Hyuuga family summon, a large white tiger, blocked her path. She turned back to Hanabi, "I see, if this is how you want to do it, that's fine by me."

Hanabi then decided to speak, "What are you going to do now? You've never been able to beat Michiko before, and I know your name isn't on the contract. You've just lost, and you know it."

"You're right. My name isn't on the family contract. It never will be, for I have signed a much more powerful one."

Hanabi just looked confused; the only other contracts she knew of were the monkeys of the Sarutobi, those of the Sannin, and Gai's turtles. The Hyuuga tigers were the strongest currently, since there was nobody currently capable of summing Enma since the passing of the Third.

Michiko by now had circled back around to stand next to Hanabi, since it was apparent that Hinata wasn't going to leave anymore. She turned to Hanabi, "Why have you summoned me here? I do not enjoy being called out on such trivial matters."

"Please, Michiko-sama, this battle is to determine the heir, I am not merely demonstrating my abilities to the elders, even though I know that she can no longer win. She claims to have a more powerful summon, and I would very much like to see it cower before you."

Michiko seemed to consider this for a moment, before reluctantly agreeing to stay.

"That right there is why I didn't sign the family contract. The tigers have become far too arrogant for their own good, much like the rest of the clan. The Hyuuga style is not perfect, as much as the elders claim it to be. If it were, Naruto-kun would not have been able to beat Neji in the chunin exam. For having an all-seeing eye, the clan has become blinded to much of the world."

"Enough," shouted Hanabi, "It's time to end this!" Michiko lunged forward, charging at Hinata, obviously intending to kill her, since she was powerful enough to break though a kaiten, as long as it wasn't Neji's or Hiashi's. Hinata, in turn, flared her chakra briefly, before dropping it back down to normal, only to be answered by another chakra spike from out in the crowd. She quickly nipped her thumb, before shooting through some signs, and slammed her palm to the ground, shouting, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" and being enveloped in a large cloud of smoke.

Michiko halted her charge just outside the smoke, waiting to see the pathetic summon of her summoners pathetic older sister. A massive chakra spike, however, quickly dispersed all the smoke, revealing a three-tailed horse-sized red fox, standing calmly behind Hinata.

"Hello, Hinata-sama, what do you need today?"

"Not much, Masami, just thought I'd officially introduce you to the Hyuuga family summon, Michiko of the tigers," she said, as she leaned back against Masami's side.

The crowd had fallen silent at the appearance of the fox, as this was the first time anybody here had seen someone summon a fox. The fighters, however, ignored the crowd. "Mmm, you were right, Hinata-sama," Masami said as she looked over the tiger, "they are not worthy of your signature. I know of newborn kits that are stronger than she is, and they don't fight their superiors either."

"How dare you speak of us like that!" shouted Michiko, "You're just a trick! There is no fox contract for this village, or any other village for that matter! I will not tolerate you speaking down to me like this!" she then charged the fox, who just swatted the smaller tiger aside with one of her tails, causing so much damage, that the tiger was forced to retreat to the summon world.

Hanabi was in so much shock that she was unable to speak. Some trick had just defeated the strongest tiger she could summon! Hinata exchanged a few quiet words with Masami, before the fox also returned to the summon world. An odd thought suddenly ran through Hanabi's head, triggering an old memory of when she was learning about the family summons.

Finding her voice, she yelled at her sister, "I demand that you allow me to sign that contract! Clan law requires that all summons signed by a member of this clan be made available to the head family!

_Flashback_

It was the third day of Hinata's training with Naruto, and they had just finished another spar out in the woods, since they figured it would be easier to hide the fact that Hinata was back if she wasn't actually in the village. They were resting against a tree, when Naruto asked her a question.

"Neh, Hinata, does your clan have a summon?"

"Ano, y-yeah, w-we s-s-summon tigers, although I haven't signed it yet," she replied quietly, blushing slightly even though she wasn't talking to Naruto directly. He was currently in his disguise from the boat to Jungle country. She didn't really understand why there was a difference, but her chronic shyness wasn't near as bad when Naruto was dressed like this, but it worked, so they went with it.

"Why not?" Reiko asked.

"Well, I have been thinking about asking Tsunade-sama to sign hers, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. That and I don't really like any of the tigers. It's too hard to get them to agree to fight. They're just as likely to leave right away or turn on the person who summoned them as they are to fight with them, if they even bother to show up at all."

"Can your sister summon them?"

"Ano, I think so, although I do not know to what extent."

"Would you like to sign the fox contract?"

"Eh? You would let me do that?"

"Sure. Why not? There are foxes that are just as good if not better healers than baa-chan's slugs, and as long as you respect them, they won't ever turn on you or desert you in a battle."

They had discussed the differences between the summons for a while, until Hinata remembered something important.

"There is something you should know. If I sing this, I am required by clan law to make it available to the rest of the clan."

"That's fine. Kyuubi pretty much figured that would happen. If they say something about it, tell them that they must take it up with the holder of the scroll, since it is his job to allow people or not to sing the contract."

"Ok." She had then signed the contract, and they spent the rest of their time training her Jyuuken, and her foxes.

_End Flashback_

"You're more than welcome to try for it, although I am not the one to talk to about it. I do not have the authority to summon the contract, and I don't believe he will let you sign it, either." Hinata then turned to leave, since she had realized that there was no way for her to be acknowledged by her father, and while it was not outwardly apparent, she was devastated by it.

Seeing her opponent turn to leave, Hanabi charged at Hinata, preparing for a massive palm thrust to her back. Right as she was about to connect, however, there was a large explosion of smoke.

As the smoke cleared, Hanabi realized that her palm had been stopped moments before it had connected, and that she couldn't move. There was a four-tailed fox on either side of her, with their tails binding her limbs. There was also a small, one-tailed fox sitting on her right shoulder, with its tail wrapped around her neck, squeezing just enough to make its presence known.

Hinata turned around, panting heavily, having just used almost all of her chakra to summon the three foxes now binding her sister. She could see her sister struggling against the foxes holding her in place, even though they were both about out of chakra.

She slowly walked up to her bound sister, before turning to speak to her father, "I see now that it was pointless for me to try and gain acknowledgement from you or the clan. You never wanted me to be here, so now I will leave." She then turned, pulsed her chakra twice, and waited a few moments, until she felt three pulses, as if to answer her. Before she could leave, however, she was stopped by Hiashi.

"If you so desire to leave, you will have the caged bird seal applied first. That is the will of the clan."

For the first time since entering the compound, Hinata was afraid. Not only would the sealing hurt like hell, at her age the possibility of it killing her was rather high. She was interrupted from further thought by the arrival of someone else.

"No, she won't. I've read your clan laws, and as long as she remains loyal to Konoha your clan has no right to bind her with that seal. To further dissuade you from sealing her, I will extend the offer to anyone of this clan who so desires the fox contract to seek me out at noon at training ground fifteen in ten days. This is a one-time offer, open to both the branch and main families. Yes, that includes you, Hiashi, if you believe you can pass the test administered by the contract holder."

This statement turned the heads of many branch members, as they weren't allowed to sign the tiger contract. Not even Neji was allowed to do that, even though he had never wanted to. The tiger summons didn't mesh well with his personality and fighting style.

Hiashi just sneered at Naruto, for that's who it was. "And who are you to think that you can just waltz in here and do as you please? The Hyuuga clan will not bow down to the wishes of a demon child. You should have been killed when you were born."

Surprisingly, to all of his friends that were present, he didn't cringe away from Hiashi like he usually did whenever someone called him a demon. Instead he just glared right back at him. "If I had been killed at birth you wouldn't be here either. Garra would have destroyed the village when he released Shukaku, had I not stopped him. I am the reason that this village stands for another reason as well, and you very well know it."

This confused all the young people present, except for Hinata, Sakura, and Neji, since they all knew already. The girls were told by Naruto himself, and Neji had been told when he made Jounin.

"Just because you-"

He was cut off by Naruto, "Unless you want to be executed on the spot, I suggest you don't finish that sentence. I am very well aware of the power I contain, and you should be grateful that I don't unleash it on this village. It would be well within my rights to do so, based on my upbringing." He then turned to the crowd, "My offer still stands. Noon, training ground fifteen, in ten days." With that, he pulled out a scroll, and released a much larger scroll from it. He placed the large scroll on the ground, unrolled, and returned the smaller one to his pocket. He summoned a clone, and it flashed through the hand signs for summoning. However it grabbed Hinata around the waist before slamming his hand into the ground, causing both of them, the scroll, and the foxes binding Hanabi to vanish in large clouds of smoke.

"This fight is over, and if I should discover any Hyuugas on my property without prior invitation, I will not hold back. I will now prove this. Neji! Neji, come over here please." Neji made his way over to the blond, "Neji, I would like for you to seal as many of my tenketsus as you can. If possible, seal them all. I will not move, nor will I attempt to prevent their closure in any way. I invite all to watch my chakra to prove this. Hiashi, you may help as well in the sealing of my tenketsus."

The crowd just gaped at Naruto. He was effectively asking the pair to kill him. While it was possible to live through most of ones points being closed, to have all of them closed all but guaranteed death within moments. Naruto may have been able to open a few points in his earlier fight with Neji, but this would be suicide!

Before anyone could protest, however, the two Hyuugas lined up on opposite sides of Naruto, and a very large divination circle appeared beneath him, visible only to him and the Hyuugas present.

"You are within range of our divination," they said as one, "Ultimate Jyuuken! Two hundred fifty-six palms!"

The pair almost blurred out of sight completely, they were moving so fast. They were striking so fast, that Naruto wasn't even reacting to the hits. After several seconds of this, the two Hyuugas backed away, panting heavily.

Hiashi spoke, "All of your points have been sealed. There is no possible way for you to survive."

"That's true…pant…unless….ung….I reopen my …nnng….points."

Hiashi just smirked, "That's not possible. No one has ever been able to reopen enough points to live."

Naruto just closed his eyes, and stood straight, as he started to gather his chakra, which completely shocked all the Hyuugas present, since he shouldn't have been able to stand, let alone gather chakra. They watched in shock as he slowly opened each and every one of his tenketsus, starting not with the important ones near his organs, but with his hands and feet, steadily working in towards his core. Even more shocking, however, was the fact that he was doing it all with his own chakra. None of the fox's vibrant red was anywhere but behind the seal.

As soon as he opened the last point, he turned to Hiashi, "Your Jyuuken doesn't work on me. I suggest you not send people after either Hinata or myself." He then turned away, and calmly walked out of the compound, followed soon after by all the other non-Hyuugas.

**AN: if anyone who reads this thinks it sucks, and also thinks that they can write this chapter better, by all means, try. I think it came out terrible, especially the first half. Just PM me with your version. If I like it enough, I might replace my version with yours. Or, I might take ideas from yours and use them to make mine better. Either way, I will credit all of those whose ideas I use.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Ch 7**

After Naruto left the Hyuuga compound, he almost collapsed. He wasn't out of chakra; he was just in an extreme amount of pain. Knowing that the Hyuugas would stop paying attention to him once he opened his points, he had blocked out some of the pain with his chakra. Now, however, he had stopped blocking the pain, so it would be harder to follow his signature. He stumbled along for a while, heading towards his new home, and was just about to pass out when a red blur ran in front of him.

When he awoke, he was in the master bedroom of his parents' house. As he looked around, he noticed that Kotaro was curled up at the end of the bed, Hinata was passed out in a chair next to the bed, and it was in the middle of the night. He nudged Kotaro awake.

"Hey," he whispered, "how long was I out?"

"The rest of the day. I caught you right as you passed out, and brought you back here. I'm sorry for putting you in the master bedroom, but it was the closest bed to the stairs, and you're heavy."

"It's okay, I was planning on moving in here anyways. How long has she been here?" he asked, motioning towards Hinata.

"The whole time. She's gonna want an explanation, though. She saw all the bruises on you."

"What time is it?" he asked next, since he had finally noticed that it was dark out.

"I don't know, eleven thirty? Midnight? Somewhere in there, I think. What did they do to you?"

"I showed them that the gentle fist doesn't work on me."

"And how, pray tell, did you accomplish that?"

"I let them do a two fifty-six palm, which closed all my points, and then re-opened all of them while the whole clan watched."

The fox face-planted onto the bed. "You….. are an absolute idiot. I can't believe that you actually let them do that. I can see why you did, since they think their Jyuuken is all-powerful, but still…"

"Yeah, not one of my best ideas. At least it worked."

They fell into an easy silence, until Naruto decided to take Hinata back to her room. A thought flickered through his head as he picked her up, 'I wonder where she's gonna stay now? She obviously can't go back to her clan. I mean, she's always welcome here, but I wonder if she'll stay.' He was interrupted by the small noises Hinata was making in her sleep, which he soon realized was her voice.

"Mmmm…..Naru…..kun……..mine." At this point she curled into his chest, bringing a rather lot of blood to his face.

'I'm hers? What the hell is she dreaming about? It would be nice, though, to be hers….wait, where the hell did that come from?'

Once he got her into her room, he placed her down on the bed, before carefully removing her kunai holster and weapons pouch, placing them on the nightstand. He then debated whether or not to take her jacket off, and after a few minutes of arguing furiously within himself, he decided to take it off. As he slowly unzipped it, his thoughts returned to when he had dragged her out of the river, more specifically to after he had gotten her breathing again. She had passed back out, but he knew that if he left her in those wet clothes that she could get sick, so he had to do something about it.

Flashback

'Whew, at least she's breathing again.'

"**Oi, kit, you should get her out of those wet clothes."**

'EHHHH??? I should do WHAT?????'

"**Shut UP!! It's bad enough in here without you yelling all the time. Anyways, you need to get her out of those wet clothes before she gets sick."**

'…………………….'

"**Oi, you still with me?"**

'…………….Yeah I'm still here. If it will really help her, then I guess I have to. I just hope she won't hate me for it later. If I did this to Sakura, she'd kill me.'

"**Then be glad it isn't her."**

Instead of replying, he cut his connection with the fox, opting to form a few clones to set up his cot and get a fire going, while he set about getting Hinata out of her wet clothes. He started with her pouches, which, surprisingly enough, were still full, and set them aside. Next went her sandals and forehead protector. He muttered a quick prayer that she not wake up for a while before moving to take her shirt off. It was actually a lot harder than he thought. Since they were both soaking wet, it clung to her skin, and didn't want to slide off very well. Once he managed to get it off, he then removed the armored mesh shirt she had on under that, which came off a lot easier.

Trying not to stare at her rather generous chest, which was now only being blocked from view by a black bra, he moved down to her pants. He carefully removed those as well, before picking her up and carrying her back to the river, to wash off the dirt from lying on the ground. Once that was done, he dried her off as best he could, and placed her on the cot, covering her with the blanket.

End Flashback

Having successfully removed her coat, he managed to slide her under the covers, and couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked while she was sleeping. Most of her never-ending blush was gone, her cheeks only being slightly pink, and he couldn't help but stare at her.

While he was admiring her, he had sat down on the edge of the bed, and was now finding it very hard to get up. His body just didn't want to get up. So he did the next best thing. He tucked some hair that was covering her face behind her ear. Before he could pull his hand away, though, she brought up her own and grabbed his hand, holding it in place against the side of her head. He let out an involuntary gasp as this happened, which for some reason caused her to violently roll over, flinging Naruto over her body, and face first into the wall, as she still had hold of his hand.

The resulting thud caused Hinata to begin to wake up, only to find a rather dazed and confused Naruto lying across her lower body, with his face against the wall, and his hand against her head.

Naruto's muffled voice caught her attention, "Gomen, Hinata, but can I have my hand back? You're kinda pulling my arm out of its socket."

She just stared at the back of his head for a minute, until what he said managed to process itself through her still-sleeping brain. 'Naruto-kun wants me to let go of his hand. Why would he want that? For me to have to let go of his hand means that I'm holding it. I'm not holding his hand, am I? I don't think so. Hmm, what's that I feel against my head? It feels like a hand, but it's too big to be mine. And what is that thing I'm holding onto? It feels like it has fingers……. Wait, Naruto-kun needs his hand back, there's something hand-shaped against my head, and in _my_ hand there is something that feels like fingers…. Oh, I know, I must be holding his hand against my head. That's it! The hand against my head is too big to be mine, but just about right to be his. But why am I holing it there? Wait, Naruto-kun's hand is against my head? Naruto….kun's…… hand……….against………my……..'

She was spared thinking further by the fact that she had fainted, which, fortunately for Naruto, caused her whole body to go limp. With his arm free, he was able to sit up, and he managed to convince Kotaro, who had walked in right then, to Henge into his human form to put his shoulder back into its socket.

"What happened?" the fox asked, after returning to his animal form.

"I don't know. After I got her under the covers I just sat here watching her, and went to move some hair out of her face. Then she grabbed my hand, held it against her head, and flung me into the wall when she rolled over! The sound made her start to wake up, and when I asked her to let go of my hand so I could get up, she just stared at me for a minute while her face was turning red, and then fainted again."

Kotaro just started laughing, "I can't believe how dense you are."

"Wait, you know why she always faints around me?"

"Yup. And before you ask, I'm not gonna tell you. It's something you must figure out for yourself. If you really think about your interactions in the past, you should be able to figure it out."

"Huh. Well, oh, hey, look, she's waking up."

The pair watched as she began to wake up, as her blush finally receded a little.

"What happened?" she asked.

Naruto repeated the story of why he had face-planted into the wall, bid her goodnight, and went to bed.

Once Naruto fell asleep, he immediately found himself in his mindscape. Knowing that the only reason he would end up there was because the fox wanted to talk to him, he wandered the dark, watery halls until he found himself in front of the massive cage that held the Kyuubi.

"What do want?" he asked the beast.

"**Shut up, Kit. I brought you here to tell you some things, not to be insulted by you."**

"Still, why am I here? I'm trying to sleep."

"**You needn't worry about that. Your body is sleeping right now. As to why you are here, I have decided to allow you to the use of my enhanced senses. You just have to channel some chakra to whatever sense you want enhanced. This will work with either chakra, although if you use mine it will have a greater effect. Oh, just be careful around others if you enhance your sight. If you use your chakra your pupils will turn like mine, and if you use my chakra, not only will your pupils slit, your eyes will turn red as well."**

"Awesome. Is there anything else?"

"**Oh, I have loads more that I could teach you, but if I did it all right now, your head would explode. I may offer more later on, but don't count on it."**

"Before I go, why are you doing this? I mean, I like it that you're helping me and all, but……. why?"

The fox went silent for awhile, staring off at nothing in particular. Dense though he was, he could tell that the fox was thinking about something from his past, and if he was reading the fox's expression correctly, it was a rather painful memory.

Eventually the fox spoke again, **"I want to show you somewhere in the morning. When you wake up, go tell your Hokage that you need the next few days off. If she needs a reason, tell her you're training your new senses."**

"Uhh, ok."

"**Bring the girl too. She should get more familiar with the rest of the summons, and I need to alter her coils a bit."**

"Ehh? What's wrong with her coils?"

"**Nothing is wrong with them, but from what I can tell from her abilities, they are too small to be able to summon some of the stronger foxes and still be able to fight."**

"So what are you gonna do to her?"

"**I'm gonna make them bigger, idiot. They won't be near the size of yours, but they need to be bigger."**

"Okay. Oh, by the way, which fox should I use to give the tests to the Hyuugas?"

"**I'll do it."**

"How? I'm not gonna summon you to Konoha! Are you out of your damn mind? They'll lynch me!"

"**Shut up, idiot. You'll bring them here. If I deem them worthy, I will consider allowing them to sign the contract. And before you ask how, don't worry about it. I'll handle it."**

"What about the rest of my friends? I haven't seen any of them yet, but I'm sure some of them will ask about it. I know Sakura-chan has asked already."

"**The one that smells of cherries? Bring her here along with the lavender girl. I need to find a familiar for her."**

"Okay. Are you sure you're ready to reveal yourself, though? I mean, nobody knows that you're the fox boss yet, except Hinata. Hell, I haven't even told her that I can summon you."

"**You're worried that if word spreads that I can get out, that the village will hate you even more. Stop worrying. I shall act the way I used to, and stick to the story that an eight-tail is running things, which is in fact partially true. The strongest fox in the summon realm is in fact an eight-tail, so we won't be lying completely."**

"What if they get violent in here? Can I fight in here?"

"**Don't worry about it. The technique I'm going to use will kick them out the instant I no longer want them here."**

They talked for a while longer, going over various details about bringing people into his mindscape, and some about him summoning some foxes to get to know Sakura a little better. Before he knew it, it was time to get up, and he left the fox, to return to the waking world.


	8. Chapter 8

**Ch 8**

The next morning found Naruto, Hinata, and Sakura all in the Hokage's office, with Naruto trying to beg some days off for them to train.

"Why do you need time off to train? Can't you just do it in between missions like everyone else?"

"No, baa-chan, this is different. I just found out that I can use Kyuubi's enhanced senses, and I need to go somewhere special to train with them. I'd do it here, but it's too noisy, and there are too many smells."

"Uh huh, and why do you need those two to go with you?"

"Hinata needs to practice more with her ability to summon the foxes, and I need Sakura-chan there in case one of us hurts ourselves."

Tsunade was quite surprised with the blond's argument. She hadn't thought it possible for Naruto to talk like that. The two girls were equally impressed, even though they knew that most of it was made up.

"Alright, fine. Wait, did you just mention…"

"What, Kyuubi? They both know about the furball already. Where else would I get a summoning contract for foxes?"

"Fur….ball? Only you, Naruto, would insult the lord of demons."

"Oh, furball wants to say hi."

"Huh?"

Naruto's response was to go through a few seals before saying "Kyuubi Bunshin no Jutsu."

"Say hi to Tsunade-baa-chan, furball."

As the smoke cleared, it revealed a waist high red fox, complete with nine flowing tails. Tsunade was just gaping at him, her jaw hanging down by her knees.

"Oh, come on, baa-chan, he's not that scary."

Tsunade just kept staring at him, until she managed to find her voice, "That's……….Kyuubi?"

"Yup."

"The Kyuubi is here, in my office, and wants to say 'hi'?"

"**Hello, Hokage-san. Before you ask, the seal is not broken. This body has no access to chakra. I am not even capable of moving the papers on your desk. I no longer seek the destruction of this village either. As to why we are here, I need to train the brat to use my senses, and I have things to teach the other two as well."**

"O…ok, um, what grounds do you want?"

"**Don't worry about it. I'm taking these three somewhere special. They will be safe there."**

The fox poofed out of existence when he was done speaking, and the trio left the office, after watching Tsunade chug down a whole bottle of sake. They gathered up some supplies, and headed out of the village. Once they were a safe distance from the gate, Naruto brought Kyuubi out again.

"**Follow me. I'm going to take you three to the fox realm."**

"Fox realm? What's that?" asked Sakura.

"**It's where the fox clan lives when they aren't being summoned here. All creatures with a summon contract that I know of have a similar place. The toads all live on a Mt. Myobozo or something like that, I can't remember the name right now. Anyways, it's a safe place to train."**

"It's Mt. Myouboku."

"**Ehh, whatever. I was close. Anyways, the only way to get there without signing the contract is to go through a special cave out here. Ahh, here it is."** The girls just looked around confused, since all they saw was a clearing in the woods.

"Ano, Naruto-kun, there's no cave here." Hinata said.

"There is, it's just hidden. Gimme a sec and I'll release the illusion."

Naruto then proceeded to make several signs that neither girl has ever seen before, before he shouted, "Kai!"

"Those are special fox signs. They were designed to allow foxes to mold chakra while in animal form, since they don't have thumbs then. There is a way to open this barrier with normal signs, it just takes longer."

As he was talking, a cave slowly shimmered into existence. The strange thing about it, though, was what was inside the cave. The only thing in it was a bunch of shelves covered in scrolls. Closer inspection showed them to be almost identical to the scrolls Naruto used to bring them back to Konoha.

"Naruto, are these summoning scrolls?"

"Yeah. They're a lot better than the ones I made though, from what I can tell by looking at them."

"**Of course these are better. His pathetic ones couldn't even transport you a few hundred kilometers correctly, let alone to another dimension. If you tried this with one of his scrolls, it would probably kill you. That's why we came here. These ones are specially made for this. Now, if you don't mind, let's go."**

Kyuubi poofed out of existence again, and the trio all summoned themselves to the fox realm.

Having arrived in mid-air again, both girls were caught by Naruto, fortunately though none of them were sick. He quickly set them down, and they began to look around the area that they landed in. They found themselves in a slightly dense forest, not unlike that around Konoha, but still slightly different. The air was cleaner, the trees larger, and the leaves were greener. All in all, it was a very peaceful place to be.

The girls were interrupted from staring at the surroundings by the bunshin of Kyuubi.

"**Come on, I don't want any of the foxes here to notice my presence yet."**

The three teens followed the fox for a couple hours, until they made it to a large clearing. There was a cave on one side, a small creek on the other, and it was ringed with several square stones, set about five meters apart.

"**This is where we will stay for the week we are here. Kit, activate the barrier here by putting some chakra into one of those stones."**

"How much do you want me to put in?"

"**About a quarter should do it."**

"Ok."

Naruto then summoned up the requested amount of chakra, and pushed it into the stone he was closest to. The clearing was suddenly surrounded in a light blue dome, before it slowly faded from view.

"**Now, Kit, if you would be so kind as to let me out properly. There should be plenty of chakra in that barrier to hide us. Oh, before you let me out, please bring Masami, Akiko, Yukiko, and Mayu here."**

Naruto summoned the requested foxes, and out of the resulting smoke cloud came the forms of four foxes. Three of them had three tails each, and the last one only had one. Masami walked over and greeted the three, since Kyuubi had gone back into the seal when Naruto summoned. Two of the remaining three were three-tailed Corsac foxes, and the last was a one-tailed arctic fox.

The Corsac foxes were a light gray, with a hint of red, and stood about waist high, while the arctic fox was about knee-high, and white.

Everyone present in the clearing was looking around confused, until they noticed Naruto building up a large amount of chakra. He then shot through several hand seals, before biting his right thumb, and then slamming it into the ground, shouting "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" and filling the clearing with smoke. When it cleared, Naruto was standing next to a twenty foot tall Kyuubi, who seemed quite pleased to be able to breathe fresh air again.

After stretching his neck a few times, he shrank back down to a smaller size, about even with the three-tails.

"**Alright. Sakura, you expressed interest in the medical abilities of the foxes, right?"**

"Yeah. Naruto here tells me that they are even better than Tsunade-sama at healing."

"**That they are. If you go with Akiko and Yukiko they will teach and show you some of what they can do, as they are two of the best young medics we have."**

The two foxes presumably were blushing at the praise from Kyuubi, although the only outward signs were that they had turned their heads away. After a few moments of regaining their composure, the pair of foxes walked over to Sakura and started sniffing her.

"Mmm, you smell of cherries," one of the foxes said.

"I do?" Sakura asked, "I don't remember putting anything on that was cherry scented."

"It's your natural odor," explained the fox, "You probably don't realize it, but you have smelled of cherries your whole life, and always will in the future. Just as the Hyuuga smells of lavender, and Naruto-sama smells of ramen, forest, and fox."

"You can tell all that by smelling us?"

"Oh, we can tell much more than that. You washed your hair last night, with something mango scented, had beef and vegetables for dinner last night, and had oatmeal for breakfast this morning."

Further conversation was halted between Sakura and her medic foxes, as Kyuubi was introducing the other fox present.

"**Do you remember kit telling you about getting a familiar, Hyuuga?"**

"My name is Hinata," she said quietly, "and yes, I remember Naruto-kun talking about getting a companion."

"**This is Mayu. She has expressed interest in becoming your familiar."**

The small white fox walked over to Hinata, sniffed her for a few moments, and then jumped up onto her shoulder, and rubbed her head against Hinata's face.

"Hello. Did you know you smell like old stuff?" Mayu asked.

"Ehh? Old stuff?"

"Yeah. You smell like the inside of an old house that's been closed up for a long time."

Naruto decided to answer the question, "That's because she has been staying in the guest room at my new house. It belonged to my father, and has been boarded up for sixteen years."

"Oh, well, that explains it."

"Um, Kyuubi-sama, why exactly am I here?" Masami asked.

"**I need you to help me with the procedure on the lavender one. Her coils are too small to summon beyond a four-tail. I am going to forcefully expand her coils to correct this. You will need to help hold her in place as I perform the expansion."**

Sakura spoke next, "Won't that kill her though? Chakra coils aren't meant to be forcibly expanded like that."

"**It will be quite painful, but I should be able to stretch them some without causing permanent damage. The Kiko sisters will be helping the process along. Afterwards, they will take you, cherry, and discuss whether or not you want to sign the contract. If you do, you will also have to have your coils expanded of you want to be able to summon the higher foxes. As you stand now, if you were to summon the Kiko sisters, it would probably knock you out."**

"Oi, furball, what do you want me to do?"

"**You get to comfort and hold down the Hyuuga while I expand her coils. If she is ready, we'll do it in the cave over there, so she can rest out of the sun afterwards."**

"Hai, l-lets get this o-o-over with."

They moved into the cave, with Hinata lying on the floor.

"**Oh, before we begin, you need to take your coat and shirt off."**

Hinata instantly turned the darkest red any of them had ever seen, and was about to start asking why when she realized that he would need direct access to her coils, and her clothes would be in the way. She took off her coat, and just as she was about to remove her shirt, she suddenly realized that Naruto was there, and that he would be able to see her! She quickly spun her head around to look at him, and found that he had realized the same thing, and had pulled his forehead protector over his eyes. Her anxiousness quelled slightly, she removed her shirt, and was stopped before going completely topless, since Kyuubi wouldn't be working that high, and her chest could stay covered. Now that she was ready, the rest of them got into position.

Naruto and Sakura each straddled an arm, and held that shoulder down. Masami took Hinata's feet, the Kiko sisters took up position on either side of her stomach, and Kyuubi sat on her knees.

"**Are you ready? This will probably be the most painful thing you experience in your life."**

"Hai. How long will it take?" she asked.

"**I can't really say. This is more art than science. Now, everyone, hold her down. The more she moves, the slower I have to go so I don't wreck any organs. Akiko, Yukiko, you two need to stop any hemorrhaging that occurs while I'm stretching her coils. Ready?"**

Everyone nodded, and Kyuubi, Akiko, and Yukiko all placed their front feet on Hinata's stomach, before Kyuubi's began to emit red chakra, and the sisters' began to glow green.

They could all tell the instant that his chakra began to stretch her coils, as she began to writhe about, trying to get away from the pain. To her, it felt like someone had lit her guts on fire with Amaterasu, while simultaneously dropping all of Konoha on her stomach. She was able to hold it in for a few moments, until another surge from the fox lord broke her mental barriers, and she let out one of the most pain-filled screams ever heard.

This process continued on for several minutes. Several minutes of trying to hold down the miserable Hyuuga girl, while she writhed and contorted from the pain, screaming at the top of her lungs. Eventually, her screams subsided, and she stopped moving, as the Kyuubi was slowly withdrawing all the chakra he forced into her to stretch her coils.

"**Naruto, I need you to push some of your chakra into her so that her coils won't collapse. You'll know when she's full."**

Naruto, still blindfolded, slowly placed his hand on her heaving chest, right below her breasts, and began to push his chakra into the semi-conscious girl. After a few minutes of that, he noticed that it was getting harder to push his chakra into her, and withdrew his hand.

Sakura then covered her with a blanket, before nudging Naruto to let him know that it was safe for him to remove his blindfold. When he did, the first thing he noticed that Hinata was even paler than usual, and that she was sleeping. Seeing that she was ok, Sakura left the cave to talk to the medic foxes, and Kyuubi went out to take a nap in the sun, leaving Naruto and Mayu to watch over the sleeping girl, Masami having poofed out when the procedure was done.

While watching her sleep, Naruto had the sudden strange desire to put her head in his lap, which shocked him. He had never had a thought like this, ever, in his whole life. So, after several minutes of internal debate, he decided to give in to this strange feeling, and gently placed her head in his lap. Much to his surprise, the slightly uncomfortable expression that the sleeping Hyuuga was wearing vanished, to be replaced by a look of contentment. She sighed comfortably and fell into a deeper sleep. He, in turn, leaned back against the cave wall, and began to doze.

"Ano, Naruto-sama," Naruto awoke with a start, having not realized he fell asleep. He looked around for the source of the voice, and settled on Mayu, who was standing a few feet away. Seeing as he was awake, she continued, "Ano, Naruto-sama, is it true that you have another fox that follows you around?"

"Hai, his name's Kotaro, and you don't need to call me sama. It makes me feel old."

"But you hold the great Kyuubi-sama; to do anything less would be insulting!"

"Nahh, it's fine. I didn't really have a choice in the matter, and I would rather have people respect me for me, not who my parents are or what I contain. So what else did you wanna ask?"

"Ano, could you bring Kotaro-san here? I would like to meet him, and learn about where you are from."

"Sure. And you don't need to call him san either. Neither on of us really cares about that kinda stuff." Naruto did the signs while he was talking, bit his thumb, and placed his right hand on the ground, before quietly saying "Kuchiyose no Jutsu," and having Kotaro appear from the smoke.

"Yo, what'cha need?" the fox asked.

"Not much. Mayu wanted to meet you," he said to his fox, "she is Hinata-chan's familiar now."

Kotaro walked over and started sniffing Mayu, who had started staring at the floor when Kotaro appeared. After he was done with his sniffing, the pair of foxes began talking it what he assumed was the fox language, since it consisted of several barks and yips. They eventually wandered off, leaving Naruto to go back to his nap.

The rest of the week passed without incident. Sakura signed the fox contract, and had her coils stretched, although due to the fact that hers were smaller to begin with, the highest she would be able to summon would be a seven tail. Her familiar was Yuuka, a one-tailed Corsac fox, who also specialized in medical abilities. They both had to re-do several control exercises, but they both thought it was a small price to pay for the much larger amounts of chakra they now had access to. Naruto trained his new advanced senses, as well as testing his limits with Kyuubi out of his body. He also re-worked his mindscape. Instead of it being a dark and damp sewer, it now resembled Konoha and the surrounding forests, the seal now represented by a collar on Kyuubi's neck. The collar also appeared when he was summoned. The three familiars spent their time exchanging stories of their past, and Kotaro told them of the human world.

When it came time for them to depart, Naruto told them of what he would need them to do to help him when the Hyuuga's showed up to try to get on the contract. Once they made it back to the village, Naruto began his preparations for the Hyuuga trials.

**AN: if you want to know about the fox types introduced here, go to my profile. there are links to info about them there. r&r, please!!!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Ch 9**

The day began like any other. This day, however, was special. It was the day he had set aside for the Hyuugas to try and get their name on the fox contract. It was also the day he would reveal part of his relationship with the fox. Until now, the only people who knew he could talk to the fox were Jiraiya, Tsunade, Hinata, and Sakura. Now he was going to be telling complete strangers.

When he arrived at the designated training ground, he began the preparations. He carved a large seal into the ground that would allow him to bring other people into his mindscape, and using a few earth techniques he picked up in his travels erected a roof over it so he wouldn't bake in the sun all day. Satisfied with that, he went into his mindscape, and changed it back to the sewer form, figuring it would intimidate people more. He also summoned several foxes so the Hyuugas could ask them questions.

With all his necessary preparations complete, he sat down in the middle of the seal, and meditated (believe it or not) until his 'guests' arrived.

Meanwhile, Hinata was gathering up the Hyuugas that wanted to try for the contract, and Sakura was heading out to where Naruto was, to both answer questions, and assist in the process.

When Hinata and the Hyuugas arrived in the clearing of training ground fifteen, they were quite surprised by what they saw. There were several foxes lying around a stone pavilion of sorts, and inside that pavilion was a large seal, with Naruto meditating in the middle of it.

Among the Hyuugas present were Neji, Hanabi, Hiashi, and several younger branch members. Naruto could tell this just by feeling their chakra signatures. Once he managed to get their attention by leaving his meditative position, he began the process.

"Right. You all know why you are here," he began, "before I begin the test part, though, I invite you to ask any questions you might have."

One of the branch members tentatively raised his hand.

"Yeah, what is it? And don't be afraid to ask. The foxes won't hurt you."

"How did you get the fox contract? To my knowledge there has never been one."

"The fox contract was originally held by a clan from the Hidden Whirlpool Village. After its destruction, the remnants of the clan moved here."

Another branch member raised his hand, "What clan was it?"

Naruto debated within himself for a few moments, and then decided to go for it. It wasn't like they could hate him any more than they did already. "It was the Uzumaki clan, or what was left of it. By the time they made it here, there was only one survivor. Kushina Uzumaki. My mother."

This revelation was met with stunned silence. Taking advantage of it, he continued, "While her name wasn't actually on the contract, the fox summons held enormous respect for her. So much so, that they re-located to the forests around Konoha. Kushina would visit them often, and they helped protect the village in return."

Hiashi, who was actually genuinely interested in the boy's story, spoke up next, "So, who is the boss?"

"I'm getting to that. The boss then, which was Kyuubi," he was interrupted by several people shouting at him, mainly things like 'that's not true,' or 'that's not possible.' "I assure you it's true. Anyways, the village and the foxes lived in relative harmony for several years, and the foxes were beginning to entertain the idea of allowing new people to sign the contract, since my mother didn't want to. However, something happened that would forever change the villages view on the foxes.

You see, the Kyuubi had a mate, and it had just given birth to four kits. The fox lord briefly left his mates side to let the other foxes know, and when he returned, even though he had only been gone for a few minutes, something terrible happened. His mate and kits had been murdered. Looking over the bodies of the fallen enemies, he noticed that they all wore the same symbol. Konoha."

Neji spoke next, "So you're saying that we provoked the Kyuubi into attacking us? Why would the village do that?"

"Not the village as a whole. There was a strong odor of snakes in his den, which he later realized was from Orochimaru. Seeing his family killed at the hand of leaf nins, he attacked the village in a rage. This rage was so strong that not even the words of Kushina, or the Fourth, who was also a friend of the fox lord, could break through it. Their words just seemed to enrage him further, since they denied any involvement in the attack. My mother, who was eight and a half months pregnant at the time, did everything she could think of to calm him down, but was injured in the process. These injures, along with complications from the birthing process, ultimately proved fatal. As to the fox, I'm pretty sure you can figure the rest out."

Those present just stared at the boy, not quite sure what to make of him. "But how do you know all of this?" Hanabi asked, "It's not like you were there."

"You're right. I wasn't. but Kyuubi was. You see, the fourth didn't kill it. The fox was too powerful to be killed outright. So he did the next best thing. He sealed it into a newborn child. Me. In order to hold back that much chakra, it had to be a human child less than three days old, so its chakra network would be able to adjust to the strain."

Hanabi looked horrified at the knowledge that the Kyuubi wasn't actually dead, "S-so you're t-t-the Kyuubi?"

"No. I am not the fox. I am his jailor. He exists inside of me. We are separate beings, just as tea is separate from the pot."

"But you can use its chakra, right?"

"Yes, I can use his chakra, and before you ask, no, he can't control me."

Once Naruto finished his story, the Hyuugas proceeded to ask the foxes several questions about how they fought, what their strengths were, and things like that. Hanabi still seemed scared of him, and Hiashi seemed indifferent. Suddenly though, he asked the boy a question.

"So, do you know who your father is?"

"Yes, but at this time I do not feel like speaking about it. It you feel that you must know, talk to the Hokage about it. Now then, if there are no more questions, would the first volunteer please step forward?"

A branch member slowly walked up and sat down on the seal.

"Relax. This won't hurt, and you are in no danger."

The branch member relaxed slightly, and suddenly found himself in the dark.

"Welcome to my mind, Hyuuga-san. Please follow me." Peering through the darkness, the Hyuuga made out the form of Naruto slogging his way through the ankle-deep waters of his mind, and began to follow him. Their path eventually led to Kyuubi's cage. The Hyuuga was visibly nervous, as he had no idea what was going on.

"**Hello, Hyuuga-san. I trust you are here of your own free will?"**

The poor Hyuuga almost wet himself when he heard the Kyuubi speak. He slowly looked up to the great fox's face, as that was all that could be seen of him, and slowly nodded.

"**Why do you want this contract?"**

"To better protect the village." he gasped out, eventually.

"**And how do you view Naruto?"**

"The demon child? He doesn't really bother me."

"**And yet you call him demon child?"**

"Gomen, Kyuubi-sama, I meant no disrespect, but that is what just about the whole village sees him as. It is simply the name I hear most associated with him. Until now I did not know his actual name."

The fox asked him some more questions, and once the man heard of some of the requirements to signing the contract, he eventually backed out. Naruto led him back out of his mind, and Hinata led him away from the others, so as not to influence their decisions.

This process continued for the rest of the branch members, with the fox asking them questions, having them display some of their skills, and such. The first time one of the branch members flared his chakra, those outside the seal were about to rush Naruto, thinking he was hurting the man, but the foxes told them that it was part of the test, and that Naruto was just checking the mans chakra levels, and his control.

After the branch members were done, Neji led them back to the manor, leaving Hiashi and Hanabi to try to gain the contract, as all the branch members had either been turned down, or backed out. When it was her turn, Hanabi strutted up to the pavilion, having regained much of her attitude when she realized that none of the branch members had gotten the contract.

As soon as she made it into Naruto's mind, he could tell that she was back to her old self, and turned towards the cage without a word. She followed, complaining the whole time, mainly about the water in his mind. Naruto had just about lost it trying not to yell back at her, and when she made a comment about his story being made up, he lost it. Fortunately they had arrived at the cage by now.

"Hanabi, I have not made up any of the story I told earlier. If you have any problems with it, take them up with him," he said, pointing at the cage.

As Hanabi looked up at the massive face of the Kyuubi, she stood stock still, unsure as to what she could do in here.

"**Boo."**

Hanabi just stared at the fox. "So you're supposed to be the Kyuubi, huh?" the eleven year old asked, "you don't look like much."

"**You look like even less, brat."**

"What did you call me? I am the heir of the great Hyuuga clan, and I will not tolerate you talking to me like that!" she yelled, as she flared her chakra to its maximum amount.

"**Was that supposed to scare me? My host had more chakra than that at age three. I had five times that much at birth. I am the Kyuubi no Kitsune, greatest of all the bijuu, and you, an academy student, think to intimidate me? Good luck with that."**

While he had been talking, he had been spiking his chakra as well, about how much Naruto would draw for one tail. Outside Naruto's mind, a translucent red dome suddenly appeared around the seal, trapping Naruto and Hanabi inside.

Hiashi jumped up and charged the dome. Much to his surprise, instead of being able to attack it, he fell right through it, and immediately found himself in the room with Naruto and Hanabi.

He arrived in time to hear most of what the Kyuubi was saying, and instantly went on the verbal offensive.

"What the hell did you do to my daughter?" he screamed at the fox, as Hanabi was on all fours, barely able to breathe.

"**Absolutely nothing. I merely raised my chakra to see how much she could handle. I find her limit to be quite pathetic. It barely took one tail to cause her to collapse."**

Hiashi then did about the stupidest thing possible. He flared his chakra to his maximum. Needless to say the fox wasn't impressed. He just raised his even farther. It was so high that Hiashi was finding it hard to breathe, while Naruto was holding Hanabi out of the water while her eyes rolled back in their sockets and she foamed at the mouth. He let the two of them go for a while hoping Hiashi would realize what he was doing to his daughter, but once Hanabi started convulsing, he cut off the fox's chakra.

Hiashi looked around in shock, trying to figure out what was going on, when he saw Naruto cradling the unconscious Hanabi.

"What did you do to her?" he screamed.

"I did nothing except hold her head out of the water. You flaring your chakra did this. Kyuubi's chakra was directed at a space just larger that you, while yours was blasting all over the room. Kyuubi knew what his chakra would do to your daughter, which is why he made sure none of it was near her. As to the contract, as soon as your daughter apologizes for her actions and behavior, I will allow her to try again. Until then, get out of my head."

As he finished speaking, the two Hyuugas were forcibly ejected from Naruto's mind, and flung about ten meters away from the pavilion. Hinata and Sakura were gone, as were the foxes. He looked back to Naruto, and was about to thrash the boy when he stepped off the pavilion, and it sunk back into the ground, taking the seal with it.

"I would suggest taking her home, so that she might recover faster from being exposed to your unleashed chakra." Naruto said, before pulling out a scroll, and summoning himself away, leaving the two Hyuugas alone.

As soon as Naruto appeared in his living room, he walked over and collapsed o his couch. He hadn't realized it at the time, but he spent almost the whole day listening to Hyuugas talk to Kyuubi. All in all, he was surprised his head hadn't exploded from boredom. As soon as he realized it was dark, he dragged himself upstairs, and went to bed, his last thoughts about seeing if he could go to Suna and trying to get the puppet guy (he couldn't remember his name) to teach him how to make chakra strings.

It was an idea that he had hatched while on his training trip, to attach a chakra string to a rasengan, in the hopes of turning it into a ranged attack. As he slipped into unconsciousness, his dreams were filled with him whirling several rasengans on chakra strings around his head, destroying all those who stood in his way.

The next morning found him in Tsunade's office trying to beg off a trip to Suna. After several minutes of arguing, the best answer he got was that she'd 'think about it.' As he left her office, though, a messenger sprinted right past him, ignoring him completely.

'Hmm, wonder what his problem is,' Naruto thought, 'I mean it can't be a good thing if messengers are sprinting down the hallway to baa-chan's office. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find out soon enough.'

No sooner than he finished that thought, Tsunade's voice came bellowing down the hall.

"NARUTOOOOOO!!!!!!! GET YOUR ASS BACK IN HERE RIGHT NOW!!!!!"

He immediately ran back to her office as fast as he could, only to find her desk in pieces, and a letter crushed in her hand.

"Naruto, grab Hinata and Sakura and get your asses to Suna as fast as you can. Garra has been kidnapped by the Akatsuki. I'll send more people as soon as I can find them. This is an S-class mission, you're in charge till back-up gets there. GO!!!!"

Naruto didn't even bother to respond. He just flung himself through the window, showering the street below with broken glass. As soon as he was clear of the building, he made a clone to go get Sakura, as he returned to his house to get Hinata.

Sakura was sleeping peacefully when she was suddenly awoken by a crash from the front of her apartment. Before she could even get out of bed, her bedroom door was blown off its hinges by the Naruto clone. He cut her off before she could protest.

"Get ready. Baa-chan is sending me, you, and Hinata to Suna. Garra has been taken by Akatsuki."

Sakura, who was wide awake by now, threw herself out of bed and began grabbing her gear and getting dressed, ignoring the clone as it left to gather some food for them. Also ignored was the fact that when Sakura jumped out of bed, she was only wearing a pink lace bra and panty set, and was in full view of the Naruto clone before it left her room.

Hinata was awoken when Naruto came crashing through her bedroom window, which had been closed. Sitting straight up, she saw Naruto crouched on the floor of her room, and he immediately turned to her.

"Get ready. Garra got taken by Akatsuki. We're going after him." He then shot out of her room to go get himself ready.

Less than ten minutes later, the three were departing the leaf village bound for Suna, with enough provisions for two weeks.

Even though they were going top speed, it would still take them two and a half days to get there. Realizing this, Naruto summoned Masami, this time appearing about twenty feet tall. Seeing what he had in mind, the two girls immediately jumped on the fox's back, with Hinata holding onto Naruto, and Sakura holding onto Hinata.

Before Masami could even speak, Naruto shouted out, "Suna, as fast as you possibly can."

"Hai," the fox responded, tearing through the forests of Konoha at a speed that would make Gai and Lee jealous.

'Hold on Garra, we're coming.'


	10. Chapter 10

**Ch 10 **

A few hours later, they found themselves at the border of Fire and Wind.

"Gomen, Naruto-san, but I cannot carry all three of you across the desert."

"Can you take one?"

"Hai, I should be able to handle one."

"Then it's fine." Naruto then bit his thumb, flashed through a few seals, and summoned two more three-tail foxes, as well as Kotaro, Mayu, and Yuuka. Each of the girls grabbed their fox, and jumped on one of the new three-tails. Naruto scooped up a protesting Kotaro, jumped back on Masami, and they took off across the desert.

"What the hells going on, Naruto?" asked Kotaro.

"Garra got taken by the Akatsuki."

"The sand kid? No wonder you're going so fast."

Naruto opened up his link with Kyuubi.

'You up to speed?'

"**Yeah. Just let me know when we're close."**

'How much can I handle?'

"**Alone? Mmm, probably five. Six if it's real quick, and by that I mean less than a minute. If you let me do it, you could swing eight tails for about a minute and a half, but you're looking at a week in a coma if that happens."**

'What's the most you can do without the coma?'

"**Seven, but it'll drain you completely. You'll be out for a couple hours afterwards, but that should be about it. If you go six tails alone for over a minute, it could kill you, so if you need to go past five, let me do it. You go five alone, and you're still looking at a couple hour nap."**

'That's fine. It won't matter how long I'm out, so long as they're both dead. If I go past four, will I still change like I did last time?'

"**Unfortunately. That damn seal is messing with my chakra somehow. When we get back, talk to the old pervert to see if he can do anything about it. I know you don't want to tell him, but I think it's time."**

'Yeah, you're right. He mentioned something about having a scroll all about my seal once. He was completely trashed when he told me, so I didn't pay that much attention to him.'

"**Maybe you should talk to him when he's drunk more often. He seems to provide much more useful information then."**

'Ehh, maybe.'

Naruto then pulled out the metal plate that had the kanji for toad on it, and channeled a little chakra into it, before sending a massive spike of chakra into the plate. He then lowered it, but still kept a little running through it.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Fire country, Jiraiya is seen peeping on a few well endowed women who are enjoying themselves in the local hot springs. He was scribbling furiously in his notebook, when he suddenly realized his ass was getting warm. He didn't think much of it, until his ass suddenly got A LOT hotter. It felt like someone had parked the sun right under his ass cheeks, and it sent him flying over the fence to try and find some water to cool his ass off. Even the hot water in the springs seemed better than the fiery pain coming from his ass.

Running full tilt, he jumped into the spring, and after a few moments, pulled a metal plate out of his back pocket. It had the kanji for fox on it, and was glowing a very angry shade of red.

"Damn kid," he mumbled as he stuck it back into his pocket, before climbing out of the spring. He was just about to leave when he heard the sound of knuckles being cracked behind him, and without even looking, he knew that he had landed in the women's side of the springs.

"Awww, hell, not again," he mumbled, before sprinting to the door, trying (and failing) to dodge the tremendous amount of feminine cleanliness product containers flying at him. Funny how one of the worlds greatest ninja couldn't dodge a flying shampoo bottle to save his life, as one caught him right in the eye as he looked back over his shoulder to see if they were following him.

Emerging from the springs with his newly acquired black eye, he grabbed the plate again, this time pushing some of his own chakra into it, which caused it to point to the southwest.

'Well, here goes nothing,' he thought, as he summoned a toad and took off.

xxxxxxxx

Naruto and crew flew through the desert for the rest of the day, stopping only once so the foxes could get a quick drink. As darkness fell, the outline of Suna's walls became visible on the horizon. Seeing their destination, the foxes seemingly found a new gear, and took off, going even faster than they had been earlier.

"Masami, take us right to the Kage's tower. If the guards try to stop us, just jump over them!"

Masami didn't bother to reply, as any breath that could be used for talking was better spent on running faster. She knew of the special relationship Naruto had with Garra, and knew he was immensely proud of him, even when he learned that the sand nin had made Kazekage while Naruto was still a gennin.

xxxxxxxx

Meanwhile, at the gates of Suna, the guards were all transfixed by what looked like a small sandstorm heading their way.

"Get Temari-sama out here right away!" one of them yelled.

"Don't bother I'm here already. What's going on?" she asked the guard.

"Something is approaching at high speed from the northeast!"

"How's that possible? They shouldn't have gotten the message until this morning. How can they be here so fast?" she thought out loud. Grabbing a telescope from one of the guards, she aimed it towards the approaching dust cloud, and much to her amazement, saw that it was three Konoha ninjas, all riding on large foxes.

She kept watching them as they approached, dividing her thoughts between figuring out who they were, and how the hell they were going so fast. Eventually she was able to pick out all the orange that one of them was wearing. 'Naruto? The little brat that stopped Garra? Hmm, I wonder who the other two are.'

"Stand down," she ordered the guards, "they are Konoha nins here to help us get back Kazekage-sama."

Right as she finished speaking, however, she realized that they weren't slowing down. She was about to jump out of the way when Naruto swung his arm out and grabbed her, swinging her around behind him.

"Hang on!" was all he said, and she would've yelled at him, had he not knocked the wind out of her when he grabbed her.

She just managed to get her arms wrapped around him, when the three foxes launched themselves out of the canyon that led through the village wall, and began roof-hopping to the tower. Once they got close enough, the foxes launched themselves into the air over the tower, before dispelling out from under them. Hinata and Sakura landed first, as Naruto grabbed Temari, who was flailing wildly in the air. He turned around mid-flight, caught her bridal-style, and landed gracefully on the roof next to his companions.

He set her down gently, and she immediately fell to her knees, gasping for air.

"How…"

"Fox summons," he replied, answering her question as to how they got there so fast.

"When….."

"This morning."

"Who…" she asked next, still struggling to get out more than one word at a time.

"Well, you know me, and they," he said, motioning to the girls behind him, "are Hyuuga Hinata and Haruno Sakura."

"Tsunade-sama's apprentices?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Kankuro was poisoned in the attack. We've tried everything we have, but nothing has worked yet."

"Let us take a look at him," Sakura replied, "We may be able to help."

Temari leads them to the hospital, where Hinata and Sakura go about removing the poison from Kankuro. (If you want to know how this works, go watch it yourself, just imagine that Hinata is there as well.)

While the girls were doing that, Naruto was sitting in the waiting room with Temari.

"So how exactly did you get here so fast?" she asked Naruto.

"Fox summons. Kyuubi gave me the contract a couple years ago."

"Kyuubi? You mean you actually talk to him?"

"Yeah. He's really not that bad once you get to know him. I'll tell ya all about him later, if you want to hear it."

"So when did you actually leave Konoha?"

"This morning."

"But that's impossible! That trip takes me three days at top speed! Just how fast can those foxes go?"

"Fast enough to make a three day trip into one, although all three of them are exhausted. They should be ready in the morning though. When to we head out?"

"In the morning. Hopefully the trail will still be there."

"Don't worry about that. I've got access to the best nose anywhere. So tell me, what happened?"

"Well, they came out of nowhere. One of them flew around on a giant white bird, and threw explosives down on the village. Kankuro fought the other one, who we have determined to be Akasuna no Sasori, a missing nin from here. The one with the explosives got Garra by mixing some of them into the sand he was protecting himself with. He came out of that attack still able to fight, though. Then that bastard dropped some huge explosive on the village, and it took all Garra had to block it, and then dump the sand outside the village so it wouldn't crush anybody when it fell. He exhausted himself doing that, and the Akatsuki grabbed him and flew away.

Kankuro on the other hand, faced off with Sasori at the gate, and even though he was using all three of his puppets, he was defeated, since they were all designed by Sasori before he left the village."

The girls came out of the OR then, and told Temari that Kankuro would be fine with a few days of rest. They then gathered up some last minute supplies geared towards desert survival, like cloaks and extra water, and crashed for the night.

xxxxxxxx

The next morning, they gathered at the top of the tower, preparing to depart. When Temari came out in her usual battle kimono, Naruto asked her a rather awkward question.

"Temari, don't take this the wrong way, but what are you wearing under that?"

All the girls just stared at him in shock that he had asked such a question. Seeing the coming outburst, he immediately launched into his next question.

"I only ask because we're gonna be riding our foxes the whole time. I wasn't sure if you would be comfortable riding in that."

The girls visibly relaxed at that. Once you add the second part of his question in, it actually made sense.

"Don't worry about it. I thought it might happen, and planned accordingly," she replied.

Hinata and Sakura then summoned larger foxes than they rode the day before, each of them having five tails, and Naruto summoned Masami.

"Naruto-san, I don't think I have recovered enough yet to help today," Masami said regretfully.

"I know. I had a different task in mind for you. I want you to go find Ero-sennin and bring him to wherever we happen to be at that point in time. Can you handle that?"

"Hai, I think I can handle that," she replied as she too off for the gate.

"Now then," Naruto said as he built up a massive amount of chakra, "I'd like you to meet Kyuubi."

He then bit his thumb, did the signs, and slammed his palm into the ground, producing a huge smoke cloud.

"**Ahh, fresh air."**

"You ready for some exercise?"

"**Of course. You ready to hold on?"**

Temari just stood there with her jaw on the floor. The greatest of the tailed beasts was standing right in front of her, and was engaging in a rather sarcastic conversation with Naruto, who had just _summoned_ him.

"K-K-Kyuubi?"

"**Hmm, what do you want?"**

"Chill out, furball. That's Garra's older sister. She's coming with us."

Temari couldn't believe it. Naruto had just insulted the _Kyuubi_!

"**Oh, we don't have time for this. Yes I am Kyuubi. No I'm not going to kill you. Yes the kit just summoned me. No, I'm not going to destroy your village, even though it would be fun."**

"Kyuubi,"

"**What? It would be fun."**

"Still, if everyone's ready, lets go."

Hinata and Sakura both jumped onto their foxes, and Naruto jumped onto the back of Kyuubi, before hoisting Temari up behind him.

"Hold on tight," he told the blond behind him, "these three go even faster."

"Why didn't you show up on them then?"

"Because we didn't know if we'd meet the Akatsuki on the way here."

"OhhHHHAAAAA!!!!!!"

Her response was cut short by the scream she let out as the three foxes took off towards the gates of Suna at top speed, or at least as close as they could get to it inside the village. Temari was so intent on holding on that she didn't even realize they had stopped at the gate, until Naruto spoke to her.

"Temari………-san………..can't……….breathe!"

"Oh? Gomen." She said, as she released the death grip on his chest.

"It's ok. Which way did they go?"

"Kankuro said they went north."

"**Where did he fight them?"**

Temari pointed to a spot a short ways away from the gate, "Over there."

The three foxes walked over to the battle site. They had only sniffed around for a few moments when Kyuubi suddenly jerked his head back and started sneezing. His sudden movement almost unseated his riders.

"Woah, what'd ya find?" Naruto asked.

"**Poison. And lots of it."**

"Can you track it?"

"**Of course."**

"Well then, let's go!"

The foxes took off into the desert, the cloaks of their riders whipping in the wind. Once Temari got over the fears she had, she found out that she quite enjoyed riding on the fox, wind whipping around her. Eventually it got to the point where she didn't really have to hold on, and devoted herself to scanning the horizon for signs of Garra.

They stopped briefly at midday to eat some lunch, and much to Temari's surprise, none of the foxes seemed tired. Hell, they barely looked winded. They declined eating, instead choosing to drink from a large container that Naruto pulled from a scroll that had water in it. After getting their fill, Naruto sealed the water dish back up, and they set back out into the desert.

Near mid-afternoon, they caught their first break, in the form of a comment from Kyuubi.

"**They're close. We should meet with them in about a half hour at the speed we're currently going."**

**AN: I need all you female readers (if any) to suggest some of the scents of your hair care products, the girly-er the better. I'm planning on doing some Neji bashing, and what with the fact that I'm a guy, I am having some difficulty coming up with girly scents to put in his hair. I mean, come on, there is no way hair products for men can do that to his hair, so he must use women's products. It's the only way it makes sense to me. Oh, and whosever idea I use will get credited in the story.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Ch 11**

The first sign to either Sasori or Deidara that they were being followed was the large shadow that crossed in front of then as they walked down a sand dune. The next thing they knew, there was a huge dust cloud in front of them, as whatever it was that made the shadow landed in their path.

Next came a large gust of wind that both cleared the dust away, and destroyed the giant bird that Deidara was standing on, courtesy of Temari's fan. Landing next to the unconscious body of Garra, Deidara looked over to see how Sasori was doing, and instead got a front row seat as two Naruto clones slammed an oodama rasengan into the back of the puppet Sasori was riding in. he watched in awe as the wooden puppet body exploded into kindling under the immense power of the chakra sphere, before both clones poofed out of existence, their task completed.

Deidara then looked back towards the group of people who had stopped them, and saw that it was only one sand nin, and three leaf nin. Even though the Kyuubi jinchuuriki was there, he felt that they could win. it would also provide him an opportunity to mock Itachi by bringing in his target.

"Give Garra back!" Naruto shouted, interrupting Deidara's thoughts.

"Why should we? You'll all be dead soon, yeah? So there would be no point."

"Sakura-chan, you and Temari-san take the puppet guy, and me and Hinata-chan will take the other one."

"Hai."

Turning his attention back to the two Akatsuki, he watched as Sasori pulled himself from the remains of Hiruko.

"I liked that puppet."

Sasori then summoned one of his other puppets, before commanding it to start shooting poisoned senbon at the group.

"I hate waiting and making other people wait. You are making us late for an appointment. I must kill you for this."

Temari just blew the needles away with her fan, and the few that managed to get through Sakura blocked with a pair of kunai.

Naruto meanwhile charged Deidara, who quickly made another giant bird to fly on, before raining down on them with several tiny explosives. Hinata blocked them all with a kaiten, and Naruto just flared his chakra, going into his one-tail state, the explosives just incinerating once they hit his chakra cloak.

"Hmm, guess I'll have to use C-2 then, yeah." Deidara said to himself.

Xxxxxxxx

Sakura and Temari weren't doing much better against Sasori either. While his puppet had seemingly run out of projectiles, it had engaged Sakura in a close quarters fight, it armed with a katana, and her with two kunai. Temari was blasting it with her fan when ever she got the chance, but it was hard to find an opening that wouldn't hit Sakura at the same time.

Finally seeing her chance when Sakura and the puppet jumped back, Temari swung her fan at Sasori, shouting out, "Fuuton: Dai Kamaitachi," sending a huge gust of wind at him, laced with her chakra. Right before it hit him, though, he swung his puppet into the path of the wind, letting it get shredded instead of himself.

"Not bad, but how will you handle this one?" he returned, as he brought out the Third Kazekage puppet, immediately releasing its iron sand.

"N-no way! That's the Third Kazekage!" Temari stammered out, "He was the most powerful of all of them, and the iron sand is why. He's the one who inspired Garra's sand attacks."

Most of the iron sand formed into a huge pyramid and a long rectangular prism, while the rest turned into small spheres. Thinking there was no way for the two girls to avoid it all, he flung all the sand at them.

Much to his surprise, however, none of the sand connected. Sakura's fists kept launching the large blocks away, and Temari was fending off the smaller bullets with her fan, sending huge gusts at them. Sakura blocked the few she missed with her kunai, in between bashing the hell out of the larger shapes.

They carried on this pattern for a while, until Sakura tripped and fell. Seizing the opportunity, Sasori immediately sent the pyramid over to crush her, but at the last second, Sakura sat up and unleashed a devastatingly powerful punch into it, sending it right through the Third Kazakage puppet, burying it several feet into a sand dune, and presumably destroying it, since all the iron sand fell to the ground.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Back with Naruto and Hinata, they were having trouble dodging the more powerful C-2 explosives, as they had enough power to punch through Hinata's kaiten, as evidenced by several cut and bruises, as well as minor clothing damage. The kaiten had stopped the physical explosive, but the explosion it caused went right through it.

Naruto wasn't doing well either. He had gone to two tails of power, and was doing everything he could to block the explosives, many times taking hits that would have killed ordinary shinobi, and shrugging them off like nothing, although his jacket was full of holes.

He created several clones, and had them all launch shuriken at Deidara, before shouting "taijuu kage shuriken no jutsu" and transforming about thirty shuriken into about seven hundred. None of them landed in any sort of critical area; however that wasn't the intent of them. Some of the original shuriken were actually clones in disguise, and were now latched onto the bottom of Deidara's clay bird. They quickly crawled over to the nearest wing, and with a few well-placed rasengans, cut it off completely.

Deidara came crashing down to the ground, but before he could gain any distance, he was engaged by Hinata, and was forced to defend himself using his rather rusty taijutsu skills. His lack of skill in this area was quite apparent to Hinata, who was able to land several debilitating strikes to his arms and torso, cutting off chakra to his left arm and several internal organs, as well as severely limiting the flow to his right arm. He fell over, coughing up large quantities of blood, right before Naruto ran a rasengan through his heart, killing him instantly.

He looked at Hinata, "Go help Garra. I'm gonna help them," he said, before running over to where Sasori had just revealed himself as a puppet, and unleashed his Akahigi Hyakki no Souen technique, surrounding Naruto, Sakura, and Temari with his hundred red puppets. Naruto immediately unleashed a wave of clones, all of whom were at three-tails of power, but they were instantly cut down.

Placed on the defensive, it was all the three Nin could do to keep from being slaughtered by Sasori's puppet horde. Eventually, Naruto realized he would have to go four-tails in order to get them out of this.

"I have a way out of this, but I need you two to get away from here."

"What is it?" Sakura asked.

"Just go!" Naruto shouted, creating a wave of almost five hundred clones to give the girls a way to escape. They ran towards where Hinata was, hoping that it would be far enough away for whatever Naruto had in mind.

Once they got there, they turned around just in time to see the hundred puppets (they still hadn't destroyed any) dog pile on Naruto, who had fallen to a knee, breathing hard. The three girls were just about to charge back into the fray when they were floored by a massive wave of demonic chakra that flung all the puppets away from where Naruto had been. Only Naruto wasn't there anymore. In his place was a human sized fox creature, with four tails waving behind him. It growled at Sasori, who just sent all his puppets back at him. Naruto just slammed his hands into the ground and roared, destroying several puppets with just his voice. He then seemingly vanished, weaving in and out of the puppets, destroying them as he went.

Sasori soon recovered from this assault, and began directing his puppets to attack Naruto. So began a battle of attrition, Sasori with the numbers, but lacking enough power to break through the cloak of chakra covering Naruto. Naruto had an overwhelming amount of power, but had to work his way through Sasori's puppets, which were getting better as he destroyed them, as Sasori was able to concentrate more the less puppets he had.

The battle continued for several minutes, with Sasori slowly losing puppets, and Naruto ever so slightly slowing down as he got tired. Suddenly, though, a black cylinder shot out of the sand, and hit Naruto square in the face, knocking him back several feet. The source of the cylinder was revealed to be the Third Kazekage puppet, or what was left of it. The left arm was gone, as was the right below the elbow. Both legs looked broken as well, although on a puppet it mattered little.

Naruto slowly crawled to his feet, before letting out a tremendous roar that was aimed right at the new puppet. It destroyed the rest of the functioning red puppets, and ripped the legs off the Kazekage puppet. Sasori retaliated by forming all the iron sand into sand bullets, and sending them at Naruto. Naruto just slammed his hands into the ground, and the resulting shockwave of sand and chakra deflected all the sand.

Sasori then threw what was left of his puppet at Naruto, hoping to stab him with the blade coming out of the stump of its right arm. By the time Naruto noticed it, the puppet was right in front of him, and he had no time to avoid it.

Right as it was about to stab him in the neck, though, it stopped, its body encased in sand. It struggled for a few moments before it was crushed into powder by the sand. Realizing that this was Garra's sand, Naruto looked over at the redhead, and what he saw shook him to the core.

Lying on the ground with one arm outstretched was Garra, or at least his body. Both of his eyes had changed, no longer showing the blue they were supposed to, instead showing yellow irises with a gray, shuriken shaped pupil on a black background.

That wasn't the scary part, though. The scary part was that he was lying right in front of the girls, who had absolutely no idea that Shukaku was the one driving at the moment. Naruto immediately charged at the girls, letting his fifth tail out to increase his speed. Right as he grabbed them up, a large sand hammer slammed into Naruto's back, sending him and the girls tumbling across the desert sand.

As they stood up, the girls finally got a look at Garra's face, and Temari and Sakura both fell right back down as memories of what could now happen washed over them.

"What's wrong with him?" Hinata asked.

Naruto, who had temporarily reverted back to normal after losing consciousness of a second when he was hit, answered her, "Nothing is wrong with him, it's just that Shukaku took advantage of Garra being unconscious and decided to let himself out."

"**HAHAHAHA!!!! I'M FREE!!!! I'M FREE!!!!!!!!!"**

"And the rest of the problem is that Shukaku is insane and wants to kill us all."

All Hinata could say was, "Oh."

"Yeah, I might be able to stop him, but I'm going to have to go all-out. If you see eight tails for more than a minute and a half, run like hell away from here."

"Why?"

"Because it means I'm dead. That is my limit. If I pass out, eat this, and summon Kyuubi. He should be able to hold him off long enough for you to escape before my body completely shuts down," he said, as he handed her a green soldier pill.

"What is it?"

"It's a special soldier pill I got in my travels. Just make sure you summon Kyuubi right after you fee it start working, otherwise all the chakra it puts out will kill you. It was made specifically for me and my huge coils, so be careful."

While they had been talking, Shukaku had been transforming. He was now a hundred feet tall, fully transformed, and insanely pissed off. The last time he had gotten out was during the attack on the leaf. And there, on the ground right in front of him, was the reason that he hadn't been out on so long.

Suddenly, before Naruto had a chance to let Kyuubi take over, a huge wall of sand crashed into him, knocking him several feet away from the girls, and almost knocking Naruto out. It was at this time that Sasori made the worst decision of his life. He decided to attack the giant sand beast.

Activating his water jets, he attempted, and succeeded in cutting one of Shukaku's legs off. Unfortunately, it immediately re-attached itself. Net worth of the attack? Shukaku was even more pissed off, and it was directed at the puppet master. Needless to say, Sasori didn't last long.

He unleashed all the remaining puppets in his arsenal, and sent them to attack the beast. Now, had Shukaku been made of flesh and bone it would have been a very effective strategy. Only problem, is that Shukaku is made of sand, chakra, and insanity. Sasori's puppets did nothing except get crushed in Shukaku's sand, followed shortly by Sasori himself.

With that nuisance taken care of, Shukaku turned his attention back on the other Nins present. He immediately sent several sand bullets at the girls, which Hinata blocked with a kaiten.

Naruto saw this happen, even though his vision was blurry, and he tried to yell out to the girls to get the hell out of there so they wouldn't get killed, but his voice wasn't working. Suddenly though, he saw something that made his blood run cold. Hinata had a sand spike going through her right arm, and Sakura had one going through her left thigh. Then his blood stopped altogether. They had just been hit with a wall of spiked sand. But that wasn't the worst of it. The spikes were all parts of Sasori's poisoned weapons, which were now stuck in Hinata and Sakura's bodies.

Something in him changed at that moment. It wasn't like something snapped, but that was the only way he could describe it. An eerie calm settled itself over his normally hyperactive mind. There was only one thought running through his head, and it was to make Shukaku pay.

Chakra began building around Naruto, who had managed to stand up. At first it was barely noticeable. Then it began to take on a bluish tint to it. Recognizing this human as being a threat, Shukaku drove a sand spear right at him, and he made no attempt to dodge. It impaled Naruto right through the right lung, but he barely even flinched.

His hands, which had been hanging loosely at his sides closed into fists, and the blue chakra that was surrounding him erupted into a very angry shade of red. His right hand came up, and gripped the sand spear that was sticking out of his chest, and slowly pulled it out. Surprisingly there was no wound, not even a scar was present.

He slowly walked over to where Hinata and Sakura were lying, as they had both fallen off the wall, covered on poisoned stab wounds. He gently picked Hinata up and carried her over by Temari, before returning to get Sakura. Once they were both out of the way, he knelt between them, placed a hand on each of their chests, and began pumping chakra into them.

Much to Temari's amazement, the girls' wounds all began to hiss and bubble, and toxic purple smoke began to emanate from the wounds. As soon as a wound would stop putting out the strange smoke, which Temari assumed was the poison, it closed, leaving no mark of its presence. When he was done, the only way one could tell they had even been hurt in the first place was the bloody cut marks in their clothes.

Now that the girls were out of immediate danger, he turned his attention back to the sand beast. His chakra aura, which had calmed significantly while he was healing the girls, flared back to life. It was so intense that the cloak he was wearing disintegrated, and his poor jacket split open, revealing the black shirt he wore underneath it, as well as the Shodai's necklace.

The strange thing though, was that the gem on the necklace was resonating with Naruto's chakra. Soon, his aura went form being all red, to equal parts red and blue, before combining into a purple color. The back of his aura began to shift at that point, and a tail formed. Then a second one formed, and then a third. This process continued for the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eventually the eighth tail formed behind Naruto, all made of that strange purple chakra.

Jiraiya arrived at that point, to see Naruto and his eight chakra tails waving behind him. The strangest part to him, though, was that he hadn't transformed yet. He had been around Naruto the first time he had hit four tails, and had the scar on his chest to prove it. This time, though, there was no transformation at all.

He watched in awe as Naruto vanished, and then re-appeared right underneath Shukaku's massive head, his right hand looking like he had just upper-cut somebody, and sure enough, as he looked up, there was a massive chakra fist planted firmly under Shukaku's chin.

Shukaku began throwing everything he had at the strange human, but nothing seemed to work. They fought for a quite a while, and Naruto never spoke a word. Shukaku was screaming insults the whole time, and getting his ass kicked.

Both girls had woken up by now, and the four of them just watched in awe as Naruto proceeded to cut off all four of Shukaku's legs. Naruto then slowly walked up to his face, and flared his chakra even higher, and Kyuubi's face appeared over his head. Naruto looked him right in the eye and said, "Submit," and the giant sand beast actually listened to him, and began to fade back into the seal, leaving an unconscious Garra once again.

Naruto picked him up, and carried him over to the others, his chakra aura fading away as he did. Once he got over there, he gently laid Garra down, and then he slipped into unconsciousness, collapsing in a heap.


	12. Chapter 12

**Ch 12**

Naruto woke up rather disoriented. The last thing he remembered seeing was Garra lying on the side of a sand dune out in the desert somewhere. What he was looking at now was also sand colored, but his fogged up mind could at least tell it wasn't sand, especially since he was looking _up_ at it. He blinked a few times to try and cure his blurry vision, and was able to make out a swirl pattern in the ceiling, which he realized was some kind of sandstone.

'So I'm in Suna, then?'

That's when it hit him. A strong smell of antiseptic, latex, and alcohol-based cleaners.

'Awww, hell. They didn't have to leave me in the damn _hospital_.'

"**Cool it, kit. They probably thought you were about to die."**

'Then why am I in a normal recovery room instead of intensive care?'

"**Because there weren't any major physical wounds to your body. You just burned up all, and I mean **_**all**_** your chakra, and about ninety percent of what you can use of mine. I had to feed you chakra for three days just so you wouldn't die."**

'Wait, why three days? It shouldn't take that long for my body to produce enough chakra to survive.'

"**Because the seal is powered mainly by your chakra. For some reason, the seal decided it was more important than keeping your body functioning. That is something we'll have to work on fixing, once you can get around."**

'Ohh, goodie.'

"**Hey, unless you want this to happen again, that's what has to happen."**

'Fine.'

"**Good. Now get back out there, I sense people approaching."**

Naruto cut his connection with the fox, and resumed checking out the room. Besides his bed, there was a couple chairs around a small table, several cabinets against the far wall, and a door he assumed led to the bathroom. Other than it being colored in varying shades of brown, instead of white, it looked a lot like the hospital in Konoha.

He then took stock of himself. The bed he was on was actually rather comfortable, considering it was a hospital bed. When he peeked under the sheets, he saw that he was wearing his normal black t-shirt, as well as what he assumed were hospital standard tan sweatpants. He noticed his headband and necklace on a small table next to his bed, and put the necklace on, leaving his headband for later.

When he picked up the necklace, though, he noticed that it looked different. Instead of the crystal being the normal dark green, there were swirls of red in it.

'Well that's weird,' he thought, 'but I think it makes the gem look cooler. If this is only a temporary effect, I'll have to see if I can find a way to make it permanent.'

As he tucked the gem into his shirt, the door opened, allowing Sakura, Hinata, and Jiraiya into the small hospital room. Jiraiya and Hinata sat at the table, and Sakura parked herself on the doctor stool.

"How are you feeling?" Sakura asked, rolling over on her stool.

"All things considered, I feel fine," he said, as he sat up all the way. Now that he was fully awake, he noticed their expressions. Hinata and Sakura looked worried, and Jiraiya looked nervous, and almost……scared.

"What happened after I passed out?" he asked.

Jiraiya flinched at this question, although the girls seemed unaffected, "Well, after you passed out, Jiraiya-sama picked up Garra, and we picked up you, and dragged you back here. That was a week ago."

He could tell they weren't telling the truth, or at least not all of it. "Okay, now what aren't you telling me? I can tell you two are worried about something, and that Ero-sennin looks ready to crap himself, so what really happened? Something wrong with Garra?"

"No, Garra's fine. It's just what you said, about the time you could use your tails. You were at eight tails for almost five minutes. According to what you told us, you should be dead. What happened?"

"I don't really know. After you two got hurt, it was like something changed in me. There was only one thought in my head, and that was to kick Shukaku's ass. When I started to draw my chakra, it started out as all mine, and it was higher than it had ever been before. I had no idea where it all came from, but when I woke up, the fox said I was pulling chakra away from the seal, and I apparently use a _huge_ amount there."

Jiraiya paled noticeably at that, "You mean the fox could've escaped then?"

"If he wanted to, yeah, probably. But he has no interest in getting out like that anymore. He actually is starting to like me, for lack of a better term. Anyway, while I was building my chakra, Shukaku stabbed me in the lung with his sand. When that happened, my chakra turned red, although it was darker than normal. I pulled the sand spear out of my lung, and the hole closed up almost instantly. I walked over to the girls, and carried them out of the way. I healed them, and then turned my attention to Shukaku.

Then, my necklace did something weird," he said, as he pulled it from his shirt, showing them the gem that was now swirling with red. "It made my chakra change. It went from being all red, to half red and half blue, and then it sort of merged into a purple color. It also changed the way it felt."

"What do you mean, it changed how it felt?" Jiraiya asked.

"Well, normally when I use the red chakra, it sort of tingles a little. Before I made the deal with the fox, it felt like my insides were on fire. After the necklace did its thing, though, even the tingle was gone. It felt like my normal chakra. Once I started to focus on attacking Shukaku, is when the tails came out, except this time I had to consciously form them. Normally they do it on their own; all I have to do is call on the power, and it does the rest. It's almost like me and the fox control it at the same time, but this time I was doing it by myself. I mean, normally when I use the red chakra I can feel some of the fox's thoughts and emotions, which are usually all set on destroying whatever it is that I'm using the power on. This time, though, I couldn't feel him at all once it turned colors."

"Huh."

"Yeah, I mean, the red chakra tingles at first, and the more I use it, the worse it gets. If I stay at four tails or less it doesn't bother me, but if I go to five, it slowly gets worse, until I pass out from the pain."

"But why didn't you transform?"

"I don't know. It's possible for me to hold four tails without changing, but it hurts like hell to do it, and the longest I've been able to hold it is about ten seconds."

Naruto's eyes glazed over for a second, before he continued, "Oh, Kyuubi wants you to look at the seal."

Naruto flipped the blankets off, and removed his shirt, which he noticed wasn't actually his, as the neck was too small. Both girls had to suppress blushes as they looked at his body, and slowly moved closer as he made the seal visible.

"So, how does it look?"

"Well," Jiraiya said, "It looks fine to me. Why'd the fox want us to look at it? I would've thought he would want to keep any weakness in it to himself."

"That would be true if he was still trying to break out all the time, but he isn't. He actually would rather stay in me than bust out of the seal, because that would kill me. The only way he can get out is if I let him out, and even then his powers are limited."

"Wait, you can let him out?"

"Yeah." Naruto then summed Kyuubi out in his bunshin form, because he still didn't have enough chakra to summon him properly.

"**Hello."**

Jiraiya fell over backwards in his chair once he heard that, and cracked his head on the wall so hard he passed out.

The two girls just sweatdropped, and Naruto hung his head.

"I can't believe I train under him," he mumbled, to which the fox replied, **"Me either."**

"So how's Garra?" Naruto asked.

"Other than the fact that he has been asleep for a solid week, he's medically fine. The marks around his eyes are even gone. You must've really scared Shukaku if he's pulling back his influence that much. Of course, everyone but Temari and Kankuro won't even go in the room with him since they're too afraid that Shukaku will come out, and even after we told Kankuro what happened, he was still jumpy."

"Well that's good. I mean I knew I scared him, but I didn't know it was that bad. I'm still glad it worked, though. If it hadn't, I don't really know what else I could've done. I mean, when I fought him during the invasion, his body was still visible, so I had a target to aim for. Oh, Hinata, when Ero-sennin wakes up, can you Jyuuken his arms if he tries to attack Kyuubi? I'm too tired to make another one right now."

"H..hai. Oh, here you go," she said, as she gave him back his soldier pill, "We came back on one of his toads, so I didn't need this."

They talked about what the girls had done while he had been out, which wasn't much. They sent his clothes out to get mended, only to be told they were too far gone to be fixed, and otherwise just hung out waiting for him to wake up.

"Ugh, what happened?" Jiraiya asked, as he tried to sit back up, "I thought I saw Naruto summon Kyuubi in here."

"I did," Naruto replied, "and please don't attack him. He's just a bunshin right now, and can't really do anything. I mean, there's barely enough chakra in it to keep him here. if he went outside this room, he'd probably dispel himself."

Jiraiya looked at the girls, "Why aren't you two freaking out about this? That is the _Kyuubi_ that attacked the village!"

"We know," replied Sakura, "and we also know why he attacked Konoha. We've also both seen him before, so this isn't really new to us. I mean, we both had to talk to him to get on the fox contract, and he is actually quite nice once you get to know him, as long as you don't piss him off."

Naruto then told the old sage about why Kyuubi attacked the village, so he was on the same page as the rest of them.

"I haven't told anybody else yet, and I would appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone either. I'll tell baa-chan when we get back. Oh, you might want to sit down for this next bit, Ero-sennin."

Jiraiya had gone back to looking at the seal while Naruto was talking, and slowly sat back down.

"I kinda lied before about how good I was at summoning the foxes. I can actually summon all of them, even the boss."

"Well, that's good. Who is the boss, by the way?" Jiraiya asked.

"That's why I told you to sit down. You see, when I draw on Kyuubi's power normally, I can use about five percent of it, or at least I will be once I can hold all the tails. The boss of the foxes was, and still is, Kyuubi, and I can summon him out from the seal, with access to about ten percent of his total chakra."

Jiraiya just stared at him, dumbfounded.

Naruto continued before Jiraiya could ask the question forming in his mind, "I know you're wondering how that is possible with the seal, but when I summon him, it manifests itself as a collar around his neck, so even if I summon him out, he's still sealed."

"**I still have my free will though, so if I happen to eat you before he stops me, well, it just sucks to be you. You're lucky he likes you all; he made me swear not to eat any of you until he says otherwise, and all demons are bound by their word, so if I purposefully try to eat any of you without being told to, I instantly go back into the seal. Same if I attack the village."**

"So you don't want to slaughter and kill us all anymore?"

"**Not really. The kit actually earned my respect, which is an exceedingly rare occurrence, especially for me. He is one of only five mortals ever who have earned my respect to an extent, and one of four to earn it in large amounts."**

"So who else has it?" Jiraiya asked, having overcome some of his fears and doubts about the fox.

"**Well, the first two to get it were the kits parents, then him, and then the Hyuuga. Pinky here has some, but not quite as much."**

"Why not?" Sakura asked, with a slightly hurt look on her face.

"**You're still working off how you used to treat him when you were younger, that's why."**

"Oh, right."

"**We all know you're sorry for it, and I do respect you, but the fact that you are also the newest addition to the contract plays into it as well. You simply have had less time to earn my respect than the two of them."**

"Oh, that's ok."

The fox put one of his tails on her shoulder.

"**Don't worry about it. Now then, you have notes on how the seal works, right?"** the fox asked, directing the question at the pervy old man.

"Maybe. Why you wanna look at them?"

"**Because I need to make some changes to it. During the battle with the sand rat I realized something. That gem he wears can purify my powers to the extent that he can use them without harm, but at the same time not hurt me either. Most of the time when demons are 'purified' it basically translates into killing them. This particular crystal seems to fall into the microscopic middle ground between the two. I wish to incorporate that crystal into the seal, so he can better make use of my powers."**

"Huh?"

The fox just palmed his face. **"If what I want to do works the way I want it to, you'll be able to use my powers without that burning tingly feeling."**

"Ohh. Gotcha."

"**Now, about those notes…"**

"Yeah, yeah, gimme a second," the perv said, as he summoned the scroll holder.

"What the hell did you call me for? I'm not a fighter. My job is to hold the Shiki Fuujin notes, you know that," the toad yelled.

"Calm down, we're in a hospital. And yes, I know you hold the notes, that's why I called you. The seal needs some alterations, and I don't feel like screwing up and killing the kid," he told the frog, "Just dump the scroll and go back. I'm releasing you from having to hold it."

"Why?"

"Because that's what I decided. Now drop it and go." The frog dumped the scroll onto the floor and promptly poofed out. _'About damn time. He irritates me more than the brat does,"_ he thought.

He picked up the scroll, and unrolled it in front of the fox, who stared at it for a long time, before staring at Naruto's seal for a while.

"**It might work, but I need to do some tests, and it's best if we're not around people when that happens. I heard some of the people here could feel Naruto's chakra from his fight with the rat, and we really don't need to be giving comatose patients heart attacks."**

"So where do you want to do the 'tests' at?"

"**Mmm, probably southwest."**

"Yeah, southwe- wait, you don't mean….."

"**Yes. It's the best place, since nobody lives there."**

"You do know why nobody lives out there, right?"

"**Of course I know why."**

Naruto cut in to the argument between the fox and the toad sage. "Wait, where am I supposed to go now?"

"**Southwest of here is a place called the Stripping Sands. That is where we will do the tests, but first I want to look at the seal on the rat."**

**AN: check out my profile. I've got an interesting (to me anyways) story idea for all those who like Naruto and halo. I don't know if I will actually do anything with it, but I had the thought. Anyway, R&R!!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Ch 13**

They talked for a while, until Naruto fell asleep. Returning the next day, Naruto felt good enough to go see Garra, who had woken up earlier that morning. They found him with his siblings in his office, trying to catch up on his paperwork. For once, Naruto was wishing he was still a gennin; as a chunin, even though he was from another village, there were ways Garra could make him help with some of it.

As soon as they made it through the doors, Temari trapped Naruto against the floor in a bone-crushing hug, thanking him for saving Garra. Ignoring the glares from his teammates, she was about to kiss him when they both forcefully yanked her off him, almost throwing her across the room in the process.

Once Naruto stood up, he was given a much more restrained, manly hug from Kankuro, who also hugged the girls for removing the poison from his body. Garra even shook his hand, which surprised everyone there, until they realized that his sand wasn't trying to prevent the contact. That fact surprised them even more, and once Naruto told Kankuro about how he defeated the sand rat, the puppet user was having trouble deciding whether to be in shock or to be laughing his ass off.

Temari clinched it for him when she summarized his battle by saying, "So you beat the one-tailed Shukaku by scaring the shit out of him?" at which point the puppet user busted out laughing, until Garra corrected her.

"Her. Shukaku is female."

The whole room went silent for a few moments, until everybody but the red head started laughing, and Kankuro fell over, as he was laughing too hard to stand up.

Once everyone had mostly recovered, Garra spoke again. "So what brings you here?"

"Well," Naruto replied, "I was hoping to offer a more permanent solution to your problems. One that is a little more reliable than us banking on the fact that Shukaku will stay scared of me forever."

"How?"

"Most likely changing your seal. Based on what Kyuubi has told me, the sand rat wasn't always insane, or at least not that insane. Oh, you can make clones, right?"

"Yes, why?"

"Make one, and let Shukaku take over. Me and Kyuubi want to talk to her."

"Are you sure that is wise?"

"Yeah. I mean, how much damage can a chakra-less clone do? Just put in enough to give it form. That way, if it stubs its toe too hard, it goes away. Oh, if your office has chakra seals, I would suggest activating them."

Garra activated the chakra seals, which ensured that only the most extreme levels of chakra could get out of the room, and then he and Naruto both made clones for their beasts to take over.

"Kyuubi-san," Garra started, "I would like to thank you for helping………recover me."

Kyuubi, who was the size of a large dog, just scoffed, **"Don't mention it. You're one of the kit's precious people, and even if I killed him, he'd still get up and keep trying to help."**

"**AHHHHH!!!! KEEP THEM THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY'RE BACK TO FINISH THE JOB!!!!!!! I WON'T LET YOU KILL ME, YOU BASTARDS!!!!!!"**

"**Shukaku, shut up. I'm not here to kill you. If I wanted to do that, I would've killed your psycho-ass a long time ago."**

"**I DON'T FUCKIN CARE WHAT YOU THINK!!!!!!!! I WILL BE FREE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!"**

The fox looked back at Naruto, everyone else having backed up to the walls, even Garra. **"Do it."**

Naruto flared the fox's chakra, and Shukaku stopped mid-rant, much to the relief of everyone in the room.

"**Finally got your attention. I know why you are going insane,"** the fox told the now calmer Tanuki, **"and I would like to fix it, but you gotta cooperate with us on this. I know you absolutely hate listening to people, but you behave for us for a little while, and I'll try to set you up with a similar deal to what I have."**

"**Are you sure you can fix that damnable seal? I'm sick of it fuckin with my head. If you think you can deliver, I'm all for it. Whatever you do can't make this any worse. I'd rather die than stay like this."**

"**So you'll behave now? Even after the seal is changed?"**

"**If I have to."**

"………**.."**

"**I'll try."**

"………**.."**

"**Alright, fine, dammit, I'll 'behave' once you finish whatever the hell it is you wanna do to that god damn seal."**

Naruto walked over and opened a drawer on Garra's desk, sweeping the contents of the top of the desk into it.

"Where's your seal?" he asked, while cleaning off the desk.

"Left Shoulder blade."

"Alright, take your shirt off and sit on the desk."

After Garra exposed his upper half, the blonde, along with the perv, and the two animals looked between Garra's seal, and the scroll containing the info on Naruto's. As soon as Naruto saw it he snorted.

"Well no wonder she got out all the time. I've seen stronger seals on a three-year-olds toy box. And whoever drew it musta been drunk or somethin'. I can't even read half symbols on it."

"True," responded the sage, "this one will have to come off before the new one can go on, or it will just re-seal this one."

Kyuubi turned to the sand rat, **"This is the first test of your word. For a short time, there will be no seal holding you in, after the current one is removed, and before the new one is applied. You will not use this opportunity to escape, or I will find you and kill you myself, before I move onto the rest of your kind. Basically, you try to escape, and your kind will cease to exist."**

"**I want to be out of that psycho-seal too much to fuck this up. I ain't goin nowhere."**

"**Good. You do need to go back into the seal now, however, for us to begin. Once you get there, pull all your chakra out of his system that you can, and don't send any out for any reason, until we tell you to. Try to compress it as much as you can. Oh, and it might hurt a little bit."**

Jiraiya kept talking to Garra, "Alright, once we remove your old seal, lie down on the desk, and don't move. We'll have to wait until the old seal comes off before we can start painting on the new one. Oh, and if you're still wearing that sand armor, it's gotta go, too."

"**He actually doesn't control that. I'll dump it off once I'm back in there. Anything else you wanna tell me?"** the Tanuki asked.

"No, that's all," Jiraiya replied, and the sand rat poofed out, followed shortly by Garra's skin seeming to melt off, revealing a much paler individual underneath. It was an uncomfortable feeling for Garra, as he was used to a measure of the demon's chakra always in his system, and without it he felt weak. Once the sand armor fell off, he felt naked, as this was the first time he had ever exposed himself like this. The armor had been damaged and defeated in the past, but even then he still had it covering somewhere.

While Garra was getting used to his lack of demon chakra, Jiraiya was behind him staring at his seal, trying to make heads or tails out of the chicken scratch that elder Chiyo had used to seal the beast. After staring at it for several more minutes, he almost fell over laughing.

"What's so funny?" Garra asked.

"I just figured out what seal was used, and I can't believe it. It's not a problem with the seal that's driving Shukaku insane, it's the seal itself. The seal they used is designed to put non-living objects into stasis, so they can be transported or preserved for long periods of time. To use it on something living, though, it's a wonder it didn't kill her."

Naruto stared at it some more, tilting his head to the right. "I don't believe it. They used a regular _storage_ seal to hold that thing?"

"No, not a regular one, just a really damn powerful one. Shukaku's power warped the seal just enough to change it slightly, and this changed seal is what's driving he insane. Taking this off should be quite easy, even though it's warped. If it wasn't, a fresh gennin could probably do this."

Jiraiya brought his hands together and said, "Warped Storage Seal, Kai!"

The seal glowed yellow for an instant, and then vanished.

Garra immediately laid down on the desk, and Naruto and Jiraiya started painting on the new seal, right where Naruto's was.

The girls, who had wandered closer, looked on in awe as they copied the design of Naruto's seal onto Garra's stomach.

"Naruto, why are you using the same seal as yours? Isn't that a little overkill?" Sakura asked.

"In terms of holding Shukaku, it's beyond overkill, but if the changes I'm planning on making to mine work like I think, then I can come back and make the same changes to Garra's. I won't have to study a whole nother seal setup to do it to his, if he wants it."

"Oh, that makes sense, I guess," she replied.

They painted for another few minutes, and then spent a few more looking it over, and correcting a few minor errors. After Hinata confirmed that all of Shukaku's chakra was where it was supposed to be, Jiraiya went through a list of about a hundred hand seals, before shouting, "Shiki Fuujin, Seal!"

The characters and lines that they had drawn on Garra's torso glowed yellow, before they turned black, and slowly faded away. Jiraiya had Naruto lift his shirt and both boys showed their seals, while Jiraiya made sure there were no differences between them, and he didn't find any.

"How do you feel?" Sakura asked, while running a basic diagnostic over the redhead, making sure the sealing hadn't caused any internal damage.

"Fine."

"Well, as far as we can tell," she replied, motioning to herself and Hinata, "he's fine. He checks out medically, and Hinata can't see anything wrong with him either, so he's good to go."

"Alright, bring her back out," Naruto said.

Garra conversed with the woman for a few seconds, and instead of forming a bunshin, some sand came out of his gourd, and collected on the floor. It slowly began to rise up, taking the form of a rather curvaceous woman of about their age. Once she finished forming, those gathered in the office looked at her stunned. She was of average height, with a slight tan. She had long sandy brown hair that went down to her shoulder blades, and yellow eyes. The most stunning thing about her, though, was that she was stark-ass naked, and either unaware or not caring about it. Naruto and Kankuro were both quite red and holding back nosebleeds; the former having a bit more success. Jiraiya was passed out on the floor twitching, and even Garra fighting a losing battle with the color in his cheeks.

Shukaku started to walk around, and stopped right in front of Naruto, who, to his credit, kept his eyes firmly on her face. As she neared Kankuro, his resolve faltered, and he began eyeing her up and down, and soon passed out as well. Garra managed to keep his up as well, and it wasn't until one of the girls began to clear her throat rather vigorously that she asked what was wrong, to which Naruto stuttered out, "clothes."

"What about them? You don't like what you see?"

Naruto, having been in some rough situations involving Ero-sennin and scantily clad women in his travels, answered the only safe way he knew how, and from all the times he had to say it in the past, it came out quite clearly, despite his brain fog.

"It has nothing to do with how you look, but would you please put some clothes on?" he asked. "If you want to interact with society in that form, you have to follow the rules, and they say you gotta wear clothes."

"Oh, fine."

"What do you have against clothes?"

"I am a demon. We don't need clothes in our full forms, so we never get used to them, since most of us never use our human forms, like Kyuubi, who I don't think even has one."

"**I have one."**

Naruto turned his head to the fox, **"Don't even ask. I am not showing you my human form yet. If you don't pester me about it, I might, and I stress the word **_**might**_**, show you when we get back from the Stripping Sands."**

Temari looked up in shock, "Why in the hell would anybody _want_ to go there? You got a death wish or something?"

"I don't want to go there, but furball here thinks it's the safest place for some tests he wants to run on some changes to my seal. I want to do it here, but he's too afraid that the chakra I could release might cause collateral damage."

They talked about Naruto's upcoming trip for awhile, telling him about how to look out for sandstorms, what kind of snakes and bugs he could eat, and stuff like that.

They stayed in Suna for a couple more days, and then Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, and Jiraiya set out into the desert, headed for the Stripping Sands.

**AN: i made a slight change in chapter five. those with good eyes will find it. ive just thought up a new bit of plot, and what i changed in chapter five is the only snag (i think). so for those of you who guess what i'm planning based on what i changed, please help me check for any other errors. when i reveal the secret, i will credit all those who help.**

**AN 2: i'm upping the rating at this point, as some of what happens in the next chapter is a little too..........mature for a teen rating. i was planning on this story going M at some point eventually anyway, its just happening earlier than i thought.  
**


	14. Chapter 14

**Ch 14**

The trek across the desert to the canyon was rather uneventful, with the exception of the very start. Naruto, Hinata, and Sakura had all summoned a fox to ride on, and when Jiraiya asked which one he was riding on they responded with, "Whatever one you summon." This had led to a slightly irate Jiraiya chasing after the laughing trio on top of a very pissed off toad. Now, the toad wasn't pissed at the three younger people, but rather at Jiraiya for summoning him, an amphibian who likes high-moisture environments, into the middle of a god damn _desert_. The toad almost left when Jiraiya explained the situation, and it wasn't until the old perv agreed to give the toad a huge amount of sake, (in the neighborhood of a few barrels) that the toad agreed.

It took them a few days to get to the canyon that would allow them into the Stripping Sands. There was a decent sized mountain range that cut through Wind Country, and the only way to get to the other side without climbing over a mountain was to go through this canyon. Going through the canyon wasn't terribly difficult, and they managed to traverse its distance in about a day. It's what's at the other end of the canyon that poses the most problem. Stretching for almost a thousand kilometers from the canyon end was a giant, never-ending sandstorm.

This wasn't any ordinary sandstorm either. Besides it being never-ending, it was so thick, that a normal person could see maybe ten feet through the swirling sands, and those with eye powers, even the Hyuuga, could see at most a hundred feet through the sand, getting a fuzzy blur at best.

While it was possible to cross through the eternal storm, few had ever done it. It just wasn't practical. That's not to saw only a few attempted it though. The swirling sands held innumerable skeletons in its vast depths; remains of those who had tried to cross without being properly prepared.

Our band of travelers were not to be considered a part of that group, though. They had dispelled their summons, and wrapped themselves in enough clothes to make Shino look almost naked in comparison. There was not a single skin cell exposed to the elements, and were it not for the goggles they wore over their eyes, they wouldn't even look human.

The only person known to ever be able to walk un-hindered through this inhospitable bit of desert unhindered was the current Kazekage. About a year and a half ago he and his siblings had trekked across the barren waste in search of some artifact for the council, although they never found it. The trip was not a complete waste, though, as two very important facts were discovered about the Stripping Sands.

One was that Shukaku wouldn't try to take over Garra's mind while he was there, even if he was sleeping. The other was that the sandstorm wasn't continuous. There were calm pockets throughout its area, and to one of them is where our group was headed.

They almost walked right past it. They were walking along a sand ridge when Naruto suddenly lost his balance and fell over. He rolled down the side of the dune a few feet, stopping just within sight of the rest of them. Much to their horror, he took his mask off and appeared to be…….laughing? That didn't seem right.

When the rest of the group got over to the laughing blond, they realized the reason for his joy, as he was no longer standing in the sand storm. He was, in fact, standing in the very clearing they were aiming for, and it was only his natural clumsiness that had found it. They had picked this particular area not for its closeness, for they had passed several others already, but for the fact that it was the only one charted with a permanent water source. At the bottom of the dunes surrounding the little safe-haven, was actual rocky ground, not sand like the rest of the desert. In the middle of this rocky ground was a small pond, fed by an underground spring. There was no life in or around the pond, and it was crystal clear, allowing one to see all the way to the bottom as if it was only a few inches deep, when it was closer to six feet.

Seeing this, Naruto immediately sprinted down the dune, stripping off his protective cloak in the process. When he got to the bottom, still wearing his usual outfit, he dove right in to the pool, before immediately crawling back out. The other three followed him down, albeit at a much slower rate, and tried to find out why he shot out of the water almost as fast as he had shot into it.

"What's wrong with the water?" Sakura asked, as she took off her sand protection clothes, followed by her boots. "Too hot?"

"Hell no," he replied, "that water is effin cold!"

"It's not cold, you idiot," Sakura replied as she waded in, going in far enough so the water was hitting her knees, "this feels damn good! Come on in, Hinata, and cool yourself off."

Hinata also took off her sand gear, and her sandals, and after rolling her pant legs up, waded out to join Sakura, sighing in relief at the touch of the cool water.

"Well, go out farther then. The middle is like a freaking ice cube!" Naruto responded, as he took off his sandals, before wading back in. Sakura walked out farther, until the water was about to get her black shorts wet.

"It still isn't that cold. I think I should examine your head after we get cooled off. I don't think your brain is working right."

Never one to let the opportunity to pull off a massive prank pass him by, Naruto began to form a plan to get the girls to believe him.

"Ne, Hinata, do you believe me?" he asked the girl.

"Ano, not really, it is cool, but not as cold as you describe it," she replied.

"What about over by Sakura-chan then? Does it feel any different over there?" he asked next.

As Hinata waded over by Sakura, he got in position, silently moving in behind them.

"It feels the same here, Naruto-kun. There is no significant change in the water temperature."

Suddenly realizing a snag in his plan, he asked, "You both know how to swim, right?"

They both nodded, not paying him much concentration, as they had both become pre-occupied with the cooling effects of the spring water. As he stepped closer, Sakura suddenly realized that Naruto was up to something, as all the time she had spent with him had taught her that he never asked a question like that out of the blue, and as she added in the fact of where they were standing, she instantly figured out what he was about to do, right as his hand connected with her shoulder, and his other hand met Hinata's shoulder.

Pushing a bit of chakra into his arms, he shoved them both into the middle of the pond, near where he had landed when he jumped. The force of the shove, combined with their surprise, and the resistance on their legs, both girls fell into the water completely, making Naruto grin and Jiraiya roll on the ground at the shore with his hands around his gut, trying not to laugh himself to death.

Hinata broke the surface of the water first, gasping for air. She turned to face Naruto with a half-hearted glare, sine even though it had felt really good, the water was as cold as he said it was, and he had shoved her into it. She glared at him for a second longer before she slipped back under the icy cold water, and then Sakura came up, gasping for air much like Hinata had been.

"NARUTO!!!!! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!!! THAT WATER IS FUCKIN COLD!!!!!!"

"See, I told ya it was cold. You just didn't believe me," he said as he walked over to her, "Besides, once you get over the shock of the cold, it actually feels really good."

She opened her mouth to argue further, but realized he was right. The icy cold water did feel really good, although she couldn't figure out for the life of her how there could be such cold water in the middle of the desert.

Naruto then took his jacket off, and flung it over to the shore, before diving under the surface. Noticing that Sakura was still just standing there, he swam up behind her, and popped out. Before she could turn around, he had wrapped both arms around her waist, and he immediately fell backwards, taking her with him.

They played in the water for almost an hour, and even managed to get Hinata to take her jacket off, although it took Naruto knocking Jiraiya out for her to do it, and even then she was reluctant. Once she took it off, it was immediately apparent why, and upon a slight amount of covert inspection, Naruto noticed that Sakura was having a similar reaction to the cold water that Hinata was. His suspicions were confirmed when he pretended to trip and fall right in front of Sakura, dragging his flailing arm across her chest in the process. She didn't pay any attention to it, while Naruto was trying to fight off some rather dirty thoughts while he was under water.

'I can't believe how hard they are! I'm almost surprised I didn't get cut. And that's through a bra and shirt! Imagine direct contact; I probably would have a huge gash down my arm!'

Once they realized that their limbs were going numb from the cold water, they got out and spread themselves on the bank to try and dry out a little before setting up their tents.

After a short while, Naruto stripped his shirt off, and began to set up the tents. This soon led to a rather uncomfortable realization. They had originally brought a four man tent, a three man tent, and a one man tent, and at some point in the journey the four man tent had been damaged, which left it unusable as it had a huge tear in the side fabric. The uncomfortable part came when Naruto was trying to figure out the sleeping arrangements. He knew that neither girl would share the big tent with Ero-sennin unless they absolutely had to, and he didn't blame them. He couldn't stand to stay in the same tent as the legendary pervert either, having spent many nights under the stars as a result. He wasn't particularly looking forward to doing it here, but he figured that the girls wouldn't want him in the tent with them either, so after he got the other tent set up, he began looking for a spot for himself, which caught the attention of the girls, Jiraiya having been knocked out by Sakura when she caught him ogling her and Hinata.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura asked.

"Trying to find me a spot to sleep," he replied, "the big tent got ripped at some point on the way here, so I put Ero-sennin in the little one, and you two in the other one, since I know you won't share with him."

"Damn right we wouldn't share a tent with him, he'd probably try and feel us up in the middle of the night or something," Sakura said while laughing, "but it gets really cold out here at night, and as long as you behave, I don't see why you can't share the tent with us. It was designed for three people, after all."

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want you two to feel awkward about being in the same tent as me."

Sakura just scoffed, "It's not like we haven't shared a tent before. As long as you promise not to peek at us while we change clothes, I don't think we'll have to kick you out."

Despite his blush at the fact that he would peek on them while they changed, Naruto had the perfect comeback, "As long as you can convince Hinata not to peek at me with her byakugan while I'm sleeping, I think I can manage."

Naruto's comment had Hinata turning a rather dark red, and Sakura rolling around laughing at her reaction. Naruto and Sakura teased each other for a little while, before they ate some food, and dragged a still unconscious Jiraiya into the little tent. Once the three of them got to their tent, they decided to place Naruto against one side, Hinata on the other, and Sakura in the middle. They hung a blanket inside the tent to divide the genders while they changed, and once it was taken down they all fell asleep rather quickly.


	15. Chapter 15

**Ch 15**

Naruto awoke in the middle of the night to a chattering sound. At first, he thought it was some kind of predator, but the only things he could sense with his rather poor sensing ability were Hinata and Sakura. He reached over to wake up Sakura, and as soon as his hand touched her shoulder he realized that the chattering sound was coming from the girls' teeth. He cautiously reached over her and touched Hinata, only to realize that she was even colder than Sakura was.

He leaned back to make sure he wasn't on top of Sakura, and gently shook her awake.

"W-why is-s-s it s-s-so c-c-c-cold?" she asked, waking up Hinata, who was too cold to speak understandably.

"Out in the desert it gets really cold at night. In the towns and villages it isn't quite as bad, since the buildings and stonework help hold the heat in. out here, though, it can get below freezing," he whispered, noticing that he could see his breath as he spoke. "You two are freezing. You should've woken me up earlier; I would've helped warm you up, if you're ok with it."

"W-w-what d-d-d-do you have in mind?" Sakura shivered out.

"If you promise not to hit me for it, you two can lie against me to warm up, since the fox keeps me plenty warm enough. Just make a spot in the middle."

Sakura thought it was just a scam for him to snuggle up to them, but once she touched his arm, which was quite warm, she immediately complied, allowing him to take her spot, while she took his. Once he got settled, and he swore multiple times not to do anything even remotely perverted, under threat of castration, she slid up close to him, trying to get comfortable. As she did, her feet pressed up against his leg, and he almost screamed from the sudden cold. Her feet felt like ice cubes.

Hinata took even more convincing, but he eventually managed to coax her to lie against his other side. He stayed awake until he was sure both girls were sleeping soundly before he drifted off himself.

Xxxxxxxxxx

He awoke before the girls, and after looking to make sure the sealing tag he had put on the tent door was still intact, (meaning Ero-sennin hadn't stuck his head in there during the night) realized that both girls had changed positions. When he had fallen asleep, each girl had their back to him, and there was a small space between them. Now, however, they were both facing him, with basically no space between them. To be more accurate, each one was using one of his shoulders as a pillow, and both were breathing on his neck, which, once he realized it, was sending shivers down his spine, and he found that he was immensely comfortable.

He took the opportunity to study them while they slept, having found out that he could learn a lot about people by watching them sleep. Hinata still looked angelic and pure, almost innocent, which he found amazing considering their occupation. Tilting his head towards hers, he got a deep whiff of her natural lavender scent, which he found to be rather calming.

Turning his attention to Sakura, he noticed that she had a look similar to Hinata's, although he detected something else in it. _'It doesn't have that same innocence to it, she looks, I don't know, more dangerous or something.'_ He also took in her delicate features, which he found to be rather attractive. _'Better not let her find out that I think any part of her is delicate. She'd probably kill me.'_ Both girls suddenly moved against him, and he realized just how comfortable they were, based on the feel of them rubbing up against him.

As they continued to move against him, the fact that neither wore a bra while they slept made it abundantly clear to him, and he began to realize just how much they trusted him. He also realized ho much he trusted them. He had told them his deepest, darkest secret, and they hadn't abandoned him.

For that was his greatest fear. Having grown up alone, now that he had friends who accepted him, he would do anything to protect them, even if it meant facing all of the Akatsuki alone. He dreaded telling the rest of his friends about the fox, since he was sure that at least one of them would abandon him. The ones that did know had taken it well, but he was still unsure about the rest of them.

While he was lost in thought, he had started running his hands up the girls' backs. They both awoke at the same time, and while Hinata was too embarrassed, as well as too comfortable to do anything about it, Sakura was having second thoughts. _'I should punch him for doing this, but it feels so damn good! Not only am I warm, but his hand! He probably doesn't even realize that he's putting chakra into it either, or what it's doing to me!'_

Naruto was broken out of his thoughts, and this broke the flow of chakra to his hands, and therefore the girls, causing them to moan slightly. As soon as he realized they were awake, he spoke, trying to convince them that he hadn't done anything.

"Now, before you two try and hit me for something, I didn't do anything. I woke up just like this too."

Sakura's mumbled reply surprised him, "We know, now shut up and go back to sleep. I'm still tired."

"Alright, fine. I need a minute, though," he said, as he formed a clone and substituted himself with it. "I'll be right back."

After relieving himself, he swapped places with his clone again, and it poofed out. The girls, not realizing he had taken his shirt off outside, snuggled up to his bare chest, briefly trying to figure out how he suddenly got warmer. He had started moving his hands again, although without the chakra, and Sakura decided to do the same thing to his chest, slowly running one of her hands across it, realizing that he had taken his shirt off.

She looked up at him with a mix of surprise and shock, to which he whispered, "I was getting too warm. I can put it back on, if you want me to."

She briefly glanced at the sleeping form on his other side, and then shook her head no. she twisted around briefly, trying to stretch out some of the muscles in her shoulder that she had slept on, which caused Naruto to look at her questioningly. "I slept on my shoulder funny, and now it's sore," she whispered.

He thought for a moment, before replying to her with another question, "Can you put up a sound barrier on the tent? I can help with your shoulder, but I don't want Ero-sennin to hear and get the wrong idea."

She looked at him carefully, trying to figure out what he meant, before going through a few seals and mumbling "Sound seal jutsu," which caused the tent walls to glow green for a moment, before fading back to their normal tan color. "There, now we can hear what's going on outside, but he can't hear us. Now, what are you planning on doing?"

"This," he replied, as he brought some chakra into his hand and began rubbing her shoulder, causing an immediate reaction from the girl, in the form of a long moan.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, that feels soooooooo good," she said, "Where'd you learn to do that?"

"I picked it up during my training trip. We stopped at a hot spring, and they offered massages. They had a retired kunoichi there, and she showed me this. It works better with direct contact though."

"Go ahead."

"Ehh? You're not gonna hit me are you?"

"For rubbing my shoulder? No. I might if you go anywhere else though."

This made Naruto blush, which Sakura couldn't see, due to the fact that her head was turned away from him. He slowly brought his hand up to the neck of her shirt, and then began to inch his way under the back of her shirt. Her smooth skin sent tingles through his skin, until his fingers found a scar on her shoulder blade. "Is this why your shoulder gets sore?" he asked.

"Partially. I was training with Tenten. She got me while I wasn't looking, and due to where it's at, I couldn't get the best angle to heal it properly, and I just haven't got around yet to asking Hinata or Tsunade-sama to do it yet, since it doesn't hurt."

"I know a few healing jutsu. I could take a look if you want me to."

"I don't know what good it'll do now, I've had that scar for almost two years."

"What I had in mind isn't a straight medical jutsu though. It works with Kyuubi's chakra and my own natural healing ability, and since I don't scar at all really, I think it should work. If nothing else it'll make it smaller."

"Are you sure this isn't just some scam to get me to take my shirt off?" she suddenly asked, with an accusatory hint in her voice.

Naruto turned even redder, "No, I swear I'm not thinking about doing anything perverted, although it would be easier without your shirt on, if you're comfortable with that."

Sakura blushed just as dark as Naruto, her thoughts bouncing back and forth between wanting him to take a look at her scar, the fact that she would be absolutely topless during that, and the sudden realization that she hadn't once thought about Sasuke this whole trip. _'But I love Sasuke-kun, right?'_ After making sure Naruto couldn't see, she quickly took her shirt off and laid back down.

Naruto looked at her back, her creamy skin un-marred except for the ugly kunai scar on her left shoulder blade. He focused some of Kyuubi's chakra into his hand, and a reddish-green aura enveloped it. He gently laid his hand against her scar, and he could feel the underlying muscle re-arrange itself as the scar tissue faded away, followed shortly by a good portion of the surface scar. Ending his jutsu, he traced where the old outline was, "This is where it used to be," he then traced the new one, "and this it where it is now."

Once again making Naruto look away, she slid back into her shirt, and then returned to her position at his side, except this time she was on her back, and put her head more on his chest.

"Thank you, Naruto." She had to stop herself there, because she had almost called him Naruto-kun, which she was sure would have brought on several questions that she really didn't want to answer. '_I love Sasuke-kun, not Naruto-ku………dammit. Sasuke-kun is dark and handsome and deep down I know he'll come back to me, right? I mean, after he kills Itachi, he'll come home, right?'_

"**Sure he will. Just like you were sure that confessing your love for him would stop him from leaving the village."**

'Shut up, nobody asked you,' Sakura thought to her inner self, 'that was just because of Orochimaru's curse mark.'

"**Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night."**

'I thought I told you to shut up!'

"**He abandoned you when he left the village, and even if he comes back, the best he'll do is prison, and they'll probably just pull some DNA samples and then execute him. It's kinda hard to have a relationship with someone when they're locked up or dead."**

'Well, yeah, but-'

"**But nothing. Why waste your time on a lost cause when there is someone else that has been practically throwing themselves at you for years, now? If you look deep enough inside yourself, you'll find the feelings you've hidden away while you went after Sasuke."**

'I know he's changed. I mean, he's muscular, strong, kind, loyal to a fault, powerful, and never gives up.'

"**Oh, come on, it's ok to admit to yourself that he's hot. You also gave a lot more reasons why you like Naruto than you did Sasuke. Probably cuz you don't love Sasuke anymore."**

'But Naruto also acts perverted, immature, annoying, and he's an idiot most of the time. He has almost no manners, wears those god awful orange jumpsuits, and-'

"**Those are all minor problems, all things considered. Remember he had no family to teach him most of these things, and had to learn on his own. Its surprising he turned out as well as he did,"** Inner Sakura said, cutting her off, **"whereas Sasuke has even less manners, blatantly ignores anybody who can't make him stronger, defies orders, abandoned his village that he had sworn loyalty to, tried to kill his teammate more than once, and joined up with Konoha's biggest enemy."**

Sakura had no response to that, so she cut the connection, and fell into an uneasy sleep.

Naruto, meanwhile, had turned his attention to Hinata, who currently was sleeping on his left arm. He was absentmindedly playing with her hair, when she started to drift awake, around the same time Sakura drifted back asleep.

"Naru…..to…..kun," she mumbled out, just barely awake.

"Gomen, Hinata, I didn't mean to wake you up," he whispered back.

"It's ok," she mumbled back, this time a little bit clearer.

"You feel better now? Not still cold?"

"No, not cold, just, mmhmmm, stiff," she mumbled, awake enough to respond to him, but not enough for her near constant shyness to kick in.

While trying to stifle both the blush and butterflies in his stomach from her nuzzling up against, and breathing on his neck, he activated his massage technique and began to rub her back with it.

"Mmmmmmm, Naruto-kun, that feels so good."

"Does it help?"

"Uh-huh."

He kept at it for as long as he could stand Hinata breathing on his neck, and she moaned in protest when he stopped. He refused to start again, on the grounds that he wouldn't be able to control himself, and once Hinata had fallen back asleep, he cautiously pried himself out from under the two girls, got dressed, and prepared for whatever tests Kyuubi had in mind.


	16. Chapter 16

**Ch 16**

Emerging from the tent, the first thing Naruto noticed, besides the fact that the sun was just barely peeking over the dunes, was the fact that it was still quite chilly out, as he could almost see his breath in the air. Also noticing the lack of burnable material, he pulled out a scroll and unrolled it on the ground. Placing his hands on either side of the kanji for fire on the scroll, he pushed enough chakra into it to make it burn for about an hour. As he pulled his hands away, a decent sized campfire erupted from the scroll, but did not burn it.

The portable campfire was one of Jiraiya's inventions from the war. Just unroll it, pus in some chakra, and presto, instant campfire. After filling a pot with water, he set it over the fire and waited for it to heat up. Once the water was hot, he put it in his ramen cup, and as soon as it was ready, he proceeded to inhale the warm noodles.

Having completed breakfast, he opened his link to the fox to see what the beast would need to change Naruto's seal.

'Oi, furball, what kinda stuff you gonna need?'

"**Dammit, brat, don't call me furball. Anyway, I'll need the usual stuff, oh, and a vial of your blood, as well as the necklace itself."**

'Ok. Anything else before I let you out?'

"**No, but you better let one of the girls summon me. If you do it, and break your concentration enough while I'm out here, I go back in, and there's no telling what a half-done seal could do to either of us."**

'Do you think either of them has enough chakra to actually get you?'

"**Mmmm, Cherry doesn't, but Lavender will if you give her a soldier pill."**

'Oi, they have names ya know. I don't think they really appreciate being called what they smelled like.'

"**Don't bother me any. You know who I'm talking about, so what's the difference? Anyway, have Lavender summon me as soon as she is ready to."**

'Yeah, yeah, whatever.'

Severing the connection, he mumbled out, "bastard furball," before going to collect the required sealing materials. After piling up a brush, ink, and a scroll on a nearby rock, he dug through Sakura's medical bag until he found a syringe, and withdrew some of his blood. Placing that on the rock with the rest of the stuff, he also took off the necklace, and carefully set it on the pile.

Having gathered all requested items, he sat down to wait for the rest of the group to wander out. He didn't have to wait long, as Ero-sennin soon came crawling out of his tent, and joined the blond by the fire. After about half an hour, he could hear the girls starting to wake up, and after about another fifteen minutes, they both came stumbling out, looking tired, but otherwise fine.

Once the rest of them had finished breakfast, he explained what was going to happen.

"Ok, the first thing I need, is for you," he said to Hinata, "to summon Kyuubi."

"Ano, why me?" she asked.

"Because I can't. well, I _can_ but I _shouldn't._ If I break concentration or pass out, he could vanish in the middle of the sealing process, which wouldn't be a good thing. And, since you're the only other person on the contract that can, it kind of falls to you. Oh, just take a soldier pill first. That way, once you summon him, it won't suck you dry and knock you out."

"Ok." Hinata replied. After swallowing the required soldier pill, and feeling the resulting strain on her now overflowing chakra system, she nipped her thumb, did the signs, and pushed as much chakra as she dared into the ground. As the resulting smoke cloud dispersed, it revealed a large dog-sized Kyuubi, who caught the young Hyuuga right before she fell over.

After a quick scan by Sakura revealed that Hinata was just winded from dumping basically her whole chakra supply into one technique, Kyuubi walked over to his gathered supplies, and started working. He mixed Naruto's blood in with the chakra-sensitive ink, and began crafting a very intricate seal on the scroll.

"**Oi, gaki, come here and take the crystal off this necklace. The cord will just get in the way."**

"Just do it yourself. It can't be that hard."

"**I would, but I don't have thumbs, dumbass."**

Naruto just stared at the fox for a moment, "Then how are you holding the brush?" (remember, Kyuubi is still in his animal form at this point)

"**Chakra, dumbass, but I can't use it to open the clasp on the necklace without breaking it, unless you want to go try and find **_**another**_** piece of chakra string."**

"Hell, no. I'm not walking all the way to the Fire Capital just to buy another piece of damn rope. Gimme that thing before you shred it."

Naruto quickly walked over, removed the crystal from the necklace, and deposited it in the middle of Kyuubi's very complex-looking seal array. Once it was in place, the fox channeled some chakra into the scroll, and it looked as if the crystal was absorbing the seal. The characters on the scroll were shifting around while they shrunk, and before long, the crystal was the only thing remaining on the scroll. Naruto then picked it up, and threaded the string back through it, before returning it to his neck.

"**Now for the fun part."**

"Fun part?" Naruto asked.

"**Yeah. What I just did was to make sure that the crystal wouldn't shatter if you passed my chakra through it for long periods of time. It may not have looked like it, but that crystal was covered in small cracks. I also set it up so that it can only be removed by you, so now you don't have to worry about it falling off, so long as the cord stays together. As to the fun part, we have to establish a link between your seal, and the seals in the crystal, which will also make the combination of the chakras easier, as well as some other stuff that I'm not going to explain right now, since you wouldn't get it anyways."**

"That sounds complicated."

"**It is. I basically have to either re-route part of your chakra system, or make some from scratch and connect it to you somewhere. Both processes are long, complicated, and hurt like a bitch."**

"Ok, what do I have to do now?"

"**For now, just sit down, sit still, and take your shirt off. Oh, and if you must talk, do it quietly, since if your chest moves too much while I'm writing in it, it can screw up the seal."**

Naruto then took off his jacket and shirt, and plopped down on the ground, groaning slightly when he sat on a rock. Much to everyone's amazement, he was actually able to sit still, a remarkable feat considering Naruto's personality. He carried on a quiet conversation with the girls, who were both trying to suppress blushes from looking at him shirtless, although they really didn't need to hide it from Naruto, since he was oblivious to that sort of thing.

After several minutes of the fox drawing on his stomach, chest, back, and shoulders, the fox started pacing around him, inspecting his work to see if there was anything wrong with it, as any errors, however small, could be lethal. The fox made several trips around Naruto, and finally decided that the seal was good enough.

"**Alright, this is gonna hurt like hell, so prepare yourself."**

"Do it," was all Naruto said, as he tried to prepare himself as best he could.

Kyuubi then began to push chakra into the seal, and like the previous one, it began to slither about on Naruto's body. For Naruto, it stated out feeling like he was covered in small snakes, which while unpleasant, wasn't painful. Before too long though, the seal started working its way into his chakra paths, and as soon as that happened, Naruto felt like he had been tossed in a giant meat grinder full of salt. He took the pain as long as he could, before letting out a massive, pain filled scream.

He screamed for several minutes, until, at last, the process was complete. The last bits of the seal faded, and Naruto fell on his face, smoke rising from his body.

The girls quickly ran over to him, and rolled him over. Hinata began scanning his body for internal damage with her Byakugan, and Sakura performed s diagnostic jutsu.

"Ugh, I feel like 'Bunta stepped on me," Naruto groaned out, "Am I supposed to feel like this?"

"**More or less. Sleep now, we'll test your new abilities tomorrow. Besides, I have some work to do inside the seal as well, so don't freak out when you feel my chakra."**

"Ok," he said, as he passed out. The girls dragged him back into the tent, and after knocking Jiraiya out for making several perverted comments, some about threesomes, the two girls talked to Kyuubi for a while before Hinata sent him back into the seal. They lounged around for the rest of the day, before crawling in the tent to join Naruto, ending up in a strange argument about how close they should get to him so they don't freeze again, since that night was getting colder than the one before.

"Oh, come on, Hinata, it's not like he hasn't seen you in your underwear before. I mean, you told me he had to strip you down after he pulled you out of the river."

"B-b-but that w-w-was different," she stuttered out, poking her fingers together while blushing furiously, "he did that t-to save me."

"Okay, but he still saw you. I don't understand why you hide your body from him; it's nothing to be ashamed of. If you showed him what you got, he'd probably be drooling all over you!"

"Y-y-you really th-th-think so?" Hinata asked quietly.

"Yeah. It may not seem like it, but he's almost as bad as you when it comes to this subject. If it'll make you feel better, we'll start slow. Lose the coat and the pants tonight, and we'll go from there."

Hinata tried to argue with Sakura about that much lack of clothing, but was ultimately defeated. Just before they curled up to him, though, Hinata caught Sakura just staring at the sleeping blonde.

"You like him, too, don't you?" she asked quietly.

"What gives you that idea?" Sakura asked quickly, tearing her eyes away from the sleeping blond to stare at Hinata, blushing slightly at being caught.

"It's actually quite obvious," she almost whispered, "the way you look at him when he's not looking, the way you act around him, it's almost as if you don't care, but I can see that you really do. You're just still confused about suddenly having feelings for someone you ignored your whole life instead of someone who ignored you."

Sakura cringed at the attack on her. She knew that what Hinata said was true. She _had_ ignored him when they were younger, instead focusing all her efforts on trying to impress Sasuke-kun. Yet, even after all she did to him, what with the constant rejection and physical abuse, when Sasuke had fled the village, she turned to him, and he was still there for her. He never held a grudge against her for the way she acted back then; he just kept coming back for more.

She then thought back on all the times he had saved her life. Against Zabuza and Haku on the bridge in Wave, against Orochimaru in the Forest of Death, against Garra during the invasion, and all the other times he somehow managed to save her and Sasuke. She never even entertained the idea of doing anything with him more than what she absolutely had to. Hell, she wasn't even sure if she thanked him for saving her all those times, back when she was a worthless fangirl.

"He was alone his whole life, until he met you," Hinata continued, "I watched him from the start of the Academy, and I have learned how to read his emotions. He hides his pain behind that smile when he's around others, only letting it down when he is sure he is alone. He would do anything for his friends, you especially, even if it meant sacrificing what he wanted. That's how selfless he is.

Nobody acknowledged him until Iruka-sensei did. He was Naruto-kun's first friend. He was completely alone until the age of ten. He lived in an orphanage until the age of five, when they threw him out. Once he got his apartment, people would break in and try and steal things, even though he had nothing to steal."

"It's alright, though," Naruto said, having woken up when the girls entered the tent, "I don't hold it against you, Sakura-chan. You had no idea what I was going through back then. Besides, I didn't exactly act the way I should've."

"But I still should've realized that back then. The reason you didn't know how to act was because you had nobody to teach you how to act. Back then, I always thought you lied about not having parents, even though I always saw the Hokage's signature on your permission slips. You didn't pull all those pranks because you were stupid; you did it for the attention, even if it was bad. I …………I'm sorry for the way I treated you back then, and I realize that it's kinda late now, but thank you for saving me all those times before."

"It's okay, really. I don't hold it against you." Seeing the caring expression he had, she couldn't help but hug him, letting loose silent tears she didn't even know she had. Naruto just lay there, gently running his hands up and down her back, trying to comfort her. Once he was fairly certain that she had stopped crying, he turned his attention to Hinata, who had a look of quiet longing in her face.

"Did you really watch me from the start of the Academy?"

Hinata immediately went ten shades of red; he had just figured out her second darkest secret. Once some of the shock went away, she nodded slowly.

'Thank you."

"Huh? Why thank you?" she asked quietly.

"I could tell that someone was watching me," he said, as Hinata blushed darker, "but it didn't hold the usual hate in it. Normally, when people would stare at me like that, it was because they were trying to think of a way to kill me, even the ones who pretended to be nice. With you, though, it was different. All you did was watch. There was no underlying scorn or hatred. You didn't watch me to injure or kill me you watched me because you liked me." Hinata was dangerously close to passing out right then. "I had no idea it was you for a long time, but the fox recognized your chakra signature. Even then, I didn't want to believe it. I just couldn't understand why you, of all people would like me.

I was an orphan; I had nothing. No family, no money, no friends, hell, I barely had a place to stay. Yet you, the heiress to the most powerful clan in the village, set your sights on me. I still don't see why you liked me back then. I am a demon container. There was no way in hell I'd ever have a chance with you, who is basically a princess in all but title. So I refused to think about it. I didn't want you to get hurt for being around me. You had everything I wanted; a family, friends, people to go home to, people who would be sad if you didn't come back,….."

Naruto trailed off, lost in his own emotions. Both girls watched as a tear slowly made its way down his face, followed shortly by another. They could tell that he was desperately trying to hold them back, to not cry in front of them, but he couldn't. They had made it past too many of his emotional barriers for him to hide it, even though he was trying to wear that stupid smile again, to hide his emotions behind it.

"Its okay, Naruto. Let it out."

That small prompt from Sakura was all it took to take down the last of his barriers. As they fell, they watched as seventeen years of pent up emotions began to work their way out of his system. They held him, comforting him as best they could throughout the night, until he finally managed to fall asleep in the light gray of the early desert morning. His last thought before slipping into unconsciousness was a few words from the fox.

"**For what it's worth, I'm sorry too, kit."**


	17. Chapter 17

**Ch 17**

The third day of their stay in the Stripping Sands found Naruto standing off by himself practicing with his new chakra. At first he found it surprising, since instead of Kyuubi's chakra filling him from his stomach, it now filled his system from his chest. Other than that, though, it was remarkably easy to control, all things considered.

The new chakra affected some of his jutsu as well. If he made a rasengan with it, it was now purple instead of blue. The most surprising change, though, was in the few katon jutsu he knew. Instead of them being colored like normal fire, they were blue. This shocked everybody, until the fox explained that it wasn't normal fire anymore; it was foxfire. A few experiments later, and Naruto decided that he liked foxfire, more so than normal fire, especially since it was more powerful, as well as hotter.

"**Alright, now that we know that we haven't screwed up any of your jutsu, I want you to slowly start forming tails. Go as high as you can while still in control. As soon as you feel your control start to slip, stop and wait for it to come back,"** the fox said, having been let out for the occasion.

Naruto started to build his chakra, and was soon enveloped by the now purple fox cloak. He formed one tail, followed by a second, and then a third.

"**How does it feel?" **the fox asked.

"Fine. I'm not having any trouble at all," Naruto replied.

He began to form the fourth tail, followed by the fifth, sixth, and seventh, before hesitating a moment to draw out the eighth tail. Wind was whipping around those watching him, but it did not contact them, as if each one was in their own protective bubble. Naruto's jacket had come open again, and it, along with the tails of his headband, were whipping around him.

It was at this point that he encountered the first bit of resistance. As he went to form the ninth tail, his chakra immediately stopped flowing, and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious, as Kyuubi poofed out of existence.

The girls and Jiraiya immediately ran over to the fallen boy, dragging him back over by the campsite as they began to try and figure out what happened. Jiraiya peeled his jacket and shirt off to look at his seal, and found it to be glowing orange, which he found strange. As far as they could figure out, he was fine, just unconscious, although they worried very much.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Before Naruto had even hit the ground, he was in his mindscape. Except, it was the sewer one, not the Konoha one he had changed it to. That was the first thing he noticed. The second thing was that Kyuubi was in there with him, which made sense since he was unconscious, ant therefore unable to maintain the bunshin that Kyuubi was using outside.

The third thing he noticed, though, eclipsed the first two by miles. They weren't alone in his mind. There was a third person in his head. A person who was both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. He was someone Naruto had looked up to as a child, someone who he wanted to emulate. He was his father.

Standing with his back to Naruto and Kyuubi, was none other than the Forth Hokage. Namikaze Minato, Yellow Flash of Konoha, the man who defeated the Kyuubi, sealing in his only son at the cost of his life.

Naruto looked back at the giant fox, and much to his surprise the giant fox was bowing to the Fourth. Naruto turned back around just in time to catch the Fourth spin around to face them. He was wearing a typical jounin uniform, with his flame-edged white coat on over it. He seemed to be glaring at the fox, even though it was bowing before him.

Seemingly satisfied with glaring at the fox, his expression softened a great deal as he looked at Naruto, who was just standing there. His mouth was opening, but there was no sound coming out of it. Eventually, Naruto seemed to gain control over his emotions, and he slowly walked up to the Fourth.

Once he was right in front of him, he hauled back and slugged him full in the face, as hard as he could, before wrapping his arms around him in a giant bear hug.

Minato made no move to avoid the hit, and took it fully, mildly surprised that Naruto only hit him once. Once Naruto hugged him, he just stood there for a few seconds before slowly hugging him back.

"I……."

"I know, Naruto. It's alright."

"But why'd it have to be me? Why you?" Naruto said into his father's shoulder.

"You already know the answer to both those questions," Minato replied softly, "I picked you not only because you were my son, but because I couldn't bring myself to ask another family to give up their child when my own was perfectly capable of doing it himself. As to why I had to do the sealing, that was because I was the only one who knew how to do it."

"So how'd you get here?" Naruto asked.

"I designed this seal with a failsafe in it, that if you ever tried to draw more than eight tails of the fox's power, I would appear here to find out why."

"**We found a way to purify my chakra and blend it with his own to the point that there are no longer any harmful side effects to him using it. We were trying to see how much of it he could handle."**

"So you've calmed down, finally."

"Yeah, me and the furball made a deal a couple years ago. He helps me and I let him out every once in a while."

"You let him out? How'd you accomplish that?"

"Well, I signed his summoning contract, so I can summon him out, and I can also give him control over a clone."

"Huh. I didn't think my seal was that flexible."

"Originally it wasn't. That stupid snake-teme Orochimaru put a counter-seal on it during my first chunin exam, and when Ero-sennin took it off it weakened the seal a little. Since then, it has gotten a little worse."

"I can fix that," the Fourth said, starting a chain of seals.

"NO!! I mean, I'm okay with it the way it is," Naruto screamed out, earning him a strange look from the fox, "Really, he helps me now instead of hurting me."

"Really now? Are you sure of that?"

"Yeah. If this had happened before I left on this training mission, I probably would've said to seal the bastard up tight, but I think he's gone through enough punishment."

"I see. Well, I guess that means I really don't need to be here."

"Wait! There's so much stuff I wanna know!"

"I'm sorry, Naruto, but my time here is limited. I would love to answer all your questions, but I must go now. Tell Ero-sennin I said hi, and tell Kakashi I said thank you." The spirit of the Fourth turned to the giant fox, "Well, if he trusts you now, I'm not gonna worry. I long since forgave you for attacking the leaf. A parent's grief is not stopped easily."

"**Good-bye, Minato-sama."**

"So long, old friend."

He turned his gaze back to his son, who, along with the Kyuubi, was trying desperately to hold back his tears. He walked up to Naruto, and hugged him.

"Don't go," Naruto sobbed into his father's shoulder. "Not again."

"I don't want to go, but I must. As a parting gift, I have removed the limit on the seal, so you can pull as much of his chakra as your body can safely handle. Know that your mother and I are both very proud of you, and love you very much. We will always watch over you. Good-bye, Naruto."

"Good-bye……….Tou-san."

Naruto watched as the spectral form of his father slowly faded away. Right before he completely vanished, a lone tear made its way down his cheek, falling to the watery floor with a quiet 'plink' right as he finally faded from sight.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto awoke underneath a stone pavilion that he swore wasn't there when he got up that morning. Judging by the amount of light, and the temperature, he had been out almost the whole day. He looked around, and saw that Hinata and Sakura were sitting under the pavilion also, and both seemed to be reading scrolls about something, probably a medical jutsu, and whispering to each other. Ero-sennin was sitting near-by, scribbling in his notebook.

"Urgh," Naruto mumbled out as he sat up, "how long have I been out?"

The girls rushed over to his side, followed closely by the perverted hermit.

"What happened?" Jiraiya asked.

"It was a failsafe the Fourth put in the seal, in case the fox ever tried to escape. He appeared in my mindscape, and made sure that the fox was being good, and then he took the limit off, so I can pull all nine tails if I need to."

"You spoke………..to him?"

"Yeah, oh, and he says 'hi.'"

He told them what had happened in the seal in greater detail then, and despite their protests, confirmed that he could actually pull all nine tails. He also found that he could change the color of the cloak between reddish orange and purple at will, which he was greatly appreciative of, since he didn't much care for the purple fox cloak. He didn't think it was near as intimidating as the orange one.

Satisfied, he returned to the stone pavilion, and opened up a chat with the fox.

'Well, that was unexpected,' he thought, in reference to his father's appearance.

"**Yeah, although I'm glad I was able to talk to him."**

'Me too. I just wish he could've stayed longer. It almost feels like he just died.'

"**In a way, he did. The last bit of his soul here has been freed, allowing it to finally be whole again."**

'I miss him already.'

"**As do I, kit. As do i."**

The fox, in a rather uncharacteristic turn of events, spent the rest of the day telling him stories about his parents. Surprisingly, neither of the girls asked him about his meeting with his father, both figuring he would tell them when he was ready. They both knew that his lack of family was a sensitive issue to the boy, and didn't want to pressure him.

That night, though, as the girls huddled up to Naruto for warmth, Sakura decided to ask about it.

"So you finally met him, then?"

"Yeah, I'm glad, even though I only got to talk to him for a short while. I already miss him, too. I feel like there's this hole in me that has been filled that I didn't even know was there, but at the same time it opened another one."

Hinata silently agreed with him. The death of her mother had opened a huge hole in her heart, and it still hadn't quite closed yet.

"I know what you mean, Naruto-kun," Hinata said quietly, "When my mother died, it felt like someone had ripped my heart open, and while the pain will never truly go away, it will get better over time."

Naruto just squeezed her, giving his best attempt at a one-armed hug in their current position. Sakura, on the other hand, was trying the best she could to relate to him, but due to the fact that she had not lost anyone that close to her made it difficult. So, she just opted to say nothing, and curled up a little closer to his warmth.

The next morning, Jiraiya was long gone, having left a note that said he was going to talk to one of his contacts who had emergency information on the Akatsuki.

"Naruto, what exactly is Akatsuki? I mean I know that they're bad news, but why?" Sakura asked.

"They're after people like me and Garra for the demons we contain. They want to capture all the bijuu for some kind of super weapon or something like that."

"But how do they get the demon if it's sealed inside a person?"

"Forcible extraction, killing the host in the process," he said, "but it takes time. According to Ero-sennin, it takes three days to pull a beast out of the person it's sealed in. As to what they actually _do_ with all that chakra in the meantime we don't know. That's why I was in so much of a hurry to get out here and rescue Garra."

"Oh. So what do we do now?"

"Well, first we go back to Suna, and then we go home."

"Sounds good to me."

They packed up and dismantled the campsite, once again donning the heavy protective clothing they came in. once they got into the canyon, it was quickly discarded, in favor of much more comfortable clothing. They each summed a fox, and rode them back to Suna. Once there, Naruto made a few changes to Garra's new seal, and reluctantly agreed to stay the night. They set out early the next morning, once again riding on their foxes.

On their way back, they met up with Shino, Kiba, Kurenai, and Kakashi, who had been dispatched as their back-up, but hadn't arrived until after Naruto's group had left for the Stripping Sands.

After giving Kakashi and Kurenai a basic rundown of what happened, leaving out as much reference to Kyuubi as they could while within earshot of the rest of Hinata's team, they settled into an easy walk back to the village.

Dropping back, Naruto struck up a conversation with his old teacher.

"Neh, Kakashi-sensei, I have something else to tell you," he said quietly, hoping that Kiba's hearing wouldn't pick it up, before going into a more advanced rundown of his new situation with the fox.

"So let me get this straight, you are now on relatively good terms with the most powerful demon in history, can draw his power at will, and have his summon contract?"

"Yup. Oh, I almost left out the most important part," he continued, "When I tried to draw out the ninth tail, I passed out and woke up in my mindscape. Only this time, I had a guest, other than the fox. Apparently the Fourth had set up the seal so that if I ever tried to draw out the last tail he would appear there to re-seal it in case the fox was trying to escape. We talked for a little while, and he told me to tell you 'thank you' for something."

Kakashi almost dropped his book, he was that shocked. "You talked ………to sensei?"

"Yeah. So what was he thanking you about?"

"I was part of the ANBU detail that watched over you when you were a baby. We did the best we could, but the council kept threatening the Third if he didn't stop the patrols, so we covered you the best we could when we were off-duty instead. Unfortunately, some of the ignorant villagers took advantage of the lapses in coverage."

"Awww, did Naruto-kun get beat up as a baby?"

As soon as he heard that voice, Naruto stopped dead in his tracks. He knew who it belonged to, and by extension who would be with him. He had no idea how, but those two bastards had snuck right up behind them, with them being none the wiser until one of them spoke. Kakashi and Kurenai recognized them as well.

Naruto turned around to greet his attackers, since he was the one they were after, "What do you want this time, Kisame?"


	18. Chapter 18

**Ch 18**

Naruto turned around to greet his attackers, since he was the one they were after, "What do you want this time, Kisame?"

"You know these people?" Kiba asked, while eyeing the two newcomers. The one Naruto identified as Kisame was almost six and a half feet tall, with a large, bandage wrapped sword on his back. The other one was shorter, a little less than six feet, and carried no obvious weapon. They both had large straw hats covering their faces, and their bodies were wrapped in black cloaks that were adorned with several red clouds.

"We've met in the past," Naruto replied.

Kurenai spoke up next, having also met these two in the past. "Hoshigaki Kisame, S-ranked missing nin of Kirigakure, user of several high-class suiton jutsu, as well as the sword Samehada. He was also one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist."

"Awww, you remembered me, I'm flattered," Kisame said, lifting his head enough for everyone to get a good look at it.

"So, I guess you think seven on two is good odds, then, Itachi?" Naruto said to the other cloaked person.

Sakura looked at Naruto, shock clearly evident on her face, "Itachi, you mean, Uchiha Itachi?"

"So nice to see you again, Naruto-kun," Itachi said, raising his head as well, "how's Sasuke doing?"

"Yeah, Uchiha Itachi," Naruto said to his friends, before turning back to the infamous missing nin, "You know damn well that Sasuke went to the pedophile for 'help.' I also know why you're here, and I can tell you that you won't get it."

"Oh? And why is that?" Itachi asked, his voice never leaving its normal monotone.

"Because I'm gonna kick your ass first, that's why."

"Easy Naruto," Kakashi said, finally getting into the conversation, "whatever you do, don't look at Itachi's face. He is a genjutsu master. Kurenai and I will handle him, the rest of you take on Kisame," he said, while lifting his headband to reveal his sharingan eye, "and be careful."

"Awww, look, Itachi, the jinchuuriki has friends."

"Naruto, what's he talking about?" Kiba asked, "Why is he calling you a jinchuuriki?"

"Oh, you mean they don't know yet? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to spill you secret," Kisame said, although his tone made it glaringly obvious he didn't give a damn what Naruto thought.

"He calls me that because it's what I am," Naruto said quietly, "I was made into a human sacrifice the day I was born. You see, the Fourth couldn't kill the Kyuubi, so he sealed it away instead. I am the one he sealed it into. I hold the greatest of the tailed beasts," he continued, his voice rising, until he was almost shouting, "and I'm gonna use it to kick your ass!"

Before anyone could do anything else, Naruto was charging Kisame, rasengan forming in his right hand. As he got close to the shark-skinned man, he thrust the glowing ball at him, but it was blocked by the massive bulk of Samehada. Kiba's Tsuuga met a similar fate. Shino deployed his bugs, but a well-timed water jutsu from Kisame took most of them out. Undeterred, Kiba jumped at Kisame, kunai in hand. He made several swipes at the large shark man, but was unable to land a hit.

Meanwhile, Kakashi was engaging Itachi in a taijutsu fight while Kurenai was trying to snag him in one of her more powerful genjutsus. Finding an opening, she cast her demonic tree bind, hoping that Kakashi would be able to provide enough of a distraction for her to kill him before he broke out of it. Realizing this, Kakashi created a Raikiri and charged at the bound Itachi, trying to either kill him outright, or draw enough of his attention away from Kurenai so that Itachi wouldn't realize she was there until it was too late.

Unfortunately, Itachi knew what was going on, as Kurenai had used the same genjutsu the last time they fought. He turned the jutsu back on Kurenai, who found herself bound to the tree, which forced Kakashi to end his jutsu else he kill Kurenai with it.

Kiba, who had been watching them out of the corner of his eye the whole time, was distracted just enough so Kisame could smash him in the face with Samehada. The bandages wrapping it prevented him from being shaved, but the force of the impact was enough to send him flying into Shino, and then into a tree, where they both slid to the ground, unconscious.

Hinata and Sakura then charged the giant fish man. However, he made several water clones to hold them off. Hinata found herself facing the clones, while Sakura went after the original. Whenever Hinata managed to land a hit on one of the mizu bunshin it was usually enough to destroy it, although those hits were few and far between, for even though the fish man was a large target, he was surprisingly fast for his size.

Sakura was facing the same problems Naruto and Kiba had, namely the main ability of Samehada. It kept absorbing all the chakra out of her punches. Still, she kept at it, exchanging blow after blow with Kisame, trying to but Naruto enough time to help with Itachi.

As soon as he had noticed Kakashi starting his Raikiri, Naruto had looked over at his fight with Itachi, and when he noticed Kurenai bound to her own genjutsu tree, he immediately ran over to help, Kakashi's orders be damned. They needed help, and he was gonna give it to them.

Forming a rasengan as he ran, he jumped over Kakashi's back, and tried to hit Itachi with the rasengan. He ended up missing, but it forced Itachi to let Kurenai out of the genjutsu. They engaged in a brief taijutsu fight, until Naruto made the mistake of looking at Itachi's eyes. As soon as he noticed Naruto's eyes on his own, Itachi caught him with Tsukuyomi.

Naruto then found himself bound to a giant cross, under a sky of red. "Welcome to Tsukuyomi, Naruto-kun," Itachi stated, "I control everything here. Time, space, the density of objects, whatever I want, I can do here. In this world, I am god. For the next seventy-two hours, I will torture you. Oh, and don't think that just because this is an illusion that it won't hurt. I assure you, you will feel everything."

Much to Itachi's shock, however, Naruto didn't seem fazed by his speech at all. In fact, Naruto was _laughing_ a little, even though he was bound to the cross. "You're forgetting something, Itachi. What am I?"

"A jinchuuriki."

"That's right. For which beast?"

"The Kyuubi," Itachi responded, more confused than anything.

"And where does the Kyuubi live, currently?"

"Inside your seal."

"Yup, and since he is bound in that seal, where I go, he goes, and since you've been kind enough to bring me here…"

"I brought Kyuubi as well," Itachi finished, just as s huge shadow loomed over him.

"**So this is an Uchiha. Not quite what I expected."**

"How are you here? I control everything in this world, and I most certainly didn't bring you here."

"**Baka. Your jutsu pushes the victim into the darkest part of their mind, which you forcibly take over. The darkest part of his mind happens to be the part behind the seal, which is what allows me to be here. As to controlling everything here, well, you have to take over this part of his mind first, and I don't really see that happening."**

As Kyuubi was speaking, the giant cross holding Naruto vanished, leaving no lasting damage. He then watched a rather one-sided match between Itachi and Kyuubi, which ended with Kyuubi eating Itachi, ending the technique, and returning them to the real world.

Upon returning, Itachi promptly collapsed onto his ass, breathing hard. Kisame noticed this, and hammered his left fist into Sakura's jaw, stunning her long enough for him to run over and help Itachi. Sakura was able to get her bearings at that point, and joined Hinata in running after them, as she had just finished off the last water clone. Before they could reach them, though, the two missing nins sank into the ground, and escaped.

Kakashi sighed in relief. Pulling his headband back over his left eye, and went over to help Kurenai. Kiba and Shino regained consciousness, and painfully stood up, but were immediately put back down by a glare from Sakura, who began healing their injuries.

Naruto was on his hands and knees, trying to catch his breath after escaping Itachi's Tsukuyomi.

'Thanks, Kyuubi.'

"**Don't worry about it, kit. Just be ready to tell Dog boy and Bug boy about me sooner rather than later. They heard what the fish guy said, and I'm sure that they have questions."**

'I know.'

Naruto managed to stand up, and slowly walked over to Kiba and Shino, before sitting back down.

Akamaru came bounding out of the underbrush at that point, with a large rabbit in his mouth. Seeing the condition of his master, he immediately dropped it and began to lick Kiba's face.

"Oi, oi, that's enough," he said, as he tried to fend off the large dog. "Go lick Naruto or something."

Akamaru then walked over and started barking excitedly at Naruto, who, much to his amazement, could understand what the dog was saying.

"You smell like fox," the dog barked.

"Yeah, I do, got a problem with it?" Naruto returned.

"Wait, you can understand him?" Kiba asked.

"I guess. He said I smell like fox."

"Huh. You're the first person I've met outside of the clan who can understand him that well. Oh, and what was up with all the stuff about the Kyuubi? It's dead, right?"

Naruto sighed, "No he isn't dead. What I said earlier is the truth. The Fourth couldn't kill him, so he sealed him in me. That's why I smell like a fox, why all the villagers hate me, and why I have the whisker marks on my face. I can understand if you want to stay away from me, for holding him."

Shino spoke next, "Naruto, why should we hate you for something you have no control over? You are not the fox, just like I am not my bugs. The Kyuubi lives in you just as my bugs live in me. While it is true I may have disliked you in the past, it has nothing to do with the fox."

Everyone was quite surprised by Shino's statement, although not because of what he said. The shock came more from how long it was, and even his teammates didn't think they'd ever heard him say that much at once in the whole time they knew him.

"Uhh, yeah, what he said," Kiba eventually stammered out, stunned more by Shino speaking than by Naruto revealing he holds the worlds most powerful being.

Once they had rested up, they continued their trek back to Konoha, Naruto filling them in about his relationship with the giant fox along the way. He was glad that they took it as well as they did, since it meant he was able to keep them on his relatively short list of friends. Most of his thoughts were directed elsewhere, though, namely on how to tell the rest of his friends about the fox, since he wanted to tell them in a slightly more controlled environment than on a battlefield.

Deciding he would ask Tsunade when he got back, he pushed the problem out of his head.

When they stopped that night, Naruto surprised the group by putting up his three-man tent for himself, Sakura, and Hinata.

"Sooo, what else happened on your trip?" Kiba asked him, while grinning pervertedly.

"Nothing that concerns you, mutt," he replied. Naruto knew what he was implying, and just wanted to end the conversation before Hinata and Sakura came back from gathering wood.

"It's ok, man. You're allowed to like girls, unless of course you're into guys."

"Kiba," Naruto said quietly, with just a hint of a growl in his voice, "I'm not gay, and stay out of my business."

"Awww, am I embarrassing you?" Kiba questioned playfully. He knew he was pushing Naruto's buttons, and was really enjoying himself.

"Just drop it, Kiba."

"Drop what?" Sakura asked, as she walked out of the woods.

Seeing a chance for some revenge, Naruto said, "Oh, nothing. Kiba was just making perverted comments about you and Hinata."

"Really?" she replied, while glaring at Kiba.

"Yup. He was trying to say that we were 'involved' with each other since all three of us are in the same tent."

Sakura blushed slightly at that, since she wasn't exactly against that kind of relationship, and she knew Hinata wasn't either. However, the girls had appearances to keep up, so she jumped into action. "Kiba wouldn't say anything like that would he? Because he knows I'd beat the hell out of him for suggesting that, right?"

"No, of course not, and I'm well aware of what you would do if I did," Kiba replied, while slowly backing away from Sakura.

"Good," she said, and as she walked past him, she belted him in the face, knocking him out.

Shino and Akamaru dragged him into their tent, and Naruto made a bunch of clones to keep watch, before he crawled into his tent. He was joined shortly after by the girls, who looked at him questioningly after Sakura did the sound seal again.

"Why aren't you in the middle?" asked Sakura.

"Well, I didn't think you'd want me there," Naruto replied, "I thought you just put me there to keep you warm while we were in the desert."

"Well, we did," she replied, blushing slightly, "but we both think that you are more comfortable that our pillows, so slide over. Unless of course, you don't want to…"

Naruto was both happy and angry at what Sakura said. Happy, since they admitted that they liked sleeping against him, and angry since she implied that he wouldn't want to have them sleep on him. "No, I really don't mind, I just thought that you'd be uncomfortable with it or something."

"Why, you gonna do something perverted?" Sakura asked.

"NO!!!" Naruto shot back, his blush getting a little darker, until an idea popped into his head, "Unless you want me to."

That statement had an interesting effect on the girls. Sakura's light blush got a lot darker, and her mouth started moving, but it wasn't making any noise. Hinata's reaction surprised them both.

"W-w-well, wh-what if w-w-we d-d-did want y-you to?" she stammered out, while turning the color of a ripe tomato.

Sakura and Naruto just gaped at her, since neither thought her capable of such a remark. Naruto's prankster sense kicked in at that point, and gave him an excellent reply, "Why, do you have something in mind?"

Hinata couldn't take it anymore, and fainted as the implications of his question ran through her mind. She definitely had something in mind, but didn't have near the amount of confidence in herself to voice it, especially with Sakura in the same tent.

Naruto and Sakura just sat there in a slightly awkward silence, until Naruto asked her a question. "Is it true? What Hinata said the other night, about you both liking me?" he asked quietly.

"Ehh? You heard that?"

"Yeah, I heard that whole conversation."

"Oh. I know Hinata does, and I guess….." she trailed off for a minute, warring within herself over her feelings for Naruto and Sasuke. "I guess I do too. I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but I can tell that you aren't the same as you used to be. You've changed, but in a good way."

Naruto just lay there, not sure what to think. He had no idea what to do now that he knew that his two most precious people liked him. All he knew was that when he was around them that he felt really good.

"I really don't know what it is that I feel," Naruto replied eventually. "I mean, I know I feel really good around the two of you, but beyond that I just don't know."

"It's okay, Naruto….kun. We'll figure it out together, right Hinata?"

She was surprised that Sakura had figured out that she was awake, but managed to find her voice, "Ano, hai, we'll figure it out together, Naruto-kun."

The girls then made Naruto hide while they changed into their sleeping clothes, and he did the same while under the blanket, stripping down to his t-shirt and boxers. He had kept his pants on while they were in the desert, but out in the forest of Fire Country, it was a good deal warmer at night.

Once both girls were done changing, they let him poke his head back out, and gave him one of the biggest shocks of his life. Both of them were clad only in their bras and panties, and immediately snuggled up against him, and were soon asleep.

**AN: sorry about the short fight. i just wasnt feeling it. if any of you think you can make it better, go ahead. if i like your version enough, i will put it in place of mine, since i really dont like mina all that much. you can change whatever you want in it, except for itachi using tsukuyomi on naruto and having kyuubi show up there and break naruto out of it. otherwise i dont really care what you do. just pm me with whatever you come up with.**

**AN 2: i realize that there has been a lot more NxS than NxH recently, and i'm working to correct that. it's just a lot easier to write NxS since sakura isnt so shy. but fear not, hinata will make a comeback!!!!!**

**AN 3: the next chapter will be up as soon as fixes their errors. damn them. fox sage is also going to make the transition from T to M next chapter. i know i said i was going to do it a few chapters ago, but i didnt have a good enough reason to till now.  
**


	19. Chapter 19

**Ch 19**

Naruto awoke to a rather extreme situation. At some point during the night, Sakura's bra came off, and she was now curled up to him completely topless. Had she been face down, it wouldn't have been so much of a problem, but she was currently on her side, giving Naruto a full view of what she had to offer. _'They're not the biggest I've ever seen, but their not the smallest either. I wonder what would happen if I tou- NO!!! Not happening. Sakura-chan's gonna kill me bad enough as it is. I don't need to make it worse.'_

Unfortunately for Naruto, Sakura picked that time to wake up. She immediately knew something was wrong, based on the way Naruto was staring intently at her face. Once she noticed how red his face was, she realized that she was topless, and slowly began to turn red herself, until they were both about as dark as tomatoes.

They didn't move or say anything for several minutes, nor did they look away from each other's face. Naruto was waiting for Sakura to freak out and punch him, and Sakura was waiting for, well, something.

Naruto broke the silence first, "I, uhh, didn't do anything, I swear."

"Not even look?"

Naruto got darker, "Well, I uhh, you see,"

"It's okay, Naruto, I'm not gonna punch you, unless you say something about it. It's not your fault my bra fell off in the middle of the night. _'No, it's really mine.'_

Flashback

Sakura woke up in the middle of the night, uncomfortable. She hadn't slept in a bra for years, and it was currently preventing her from staying asleep for very long. She proceeded to fight a long battle within herself about whether or not to just take it off, and go topless, or to dig a shirt out of her bag. Eventually she just decided to screw the shirt, and go topless, figuring she could at least beat the hell out of Naruto if he did anything perverted while she was sleeping.

After removing the offending article of clothing, she curled back up to Naruto, and was amazed at how good it felt to have her bare chest against him, even if it was trough his shirt. She soon fell back asleep, and didn't wake up until morning

End flashback

"I said it's okay, Naruto. You can look if you want to, just don't touch, okay?" Sakura continued quietly. When he kept his eyes on her face, she continued, "Or do you not like them? They're too small aren't they?" She would never admit it to anybody, but she was actually rather self-conscious about her body, especially since she had the smallest chest out of all her friends.

Noticing her falling expression, Naruto said, "That has nothing to do with it, Sakura-chan. I think they look fine. I just didn't want to make you uncomfortable by staring at them. There's nothing wrong with your chest."

"You really mean it?" she asked, "You're not just saying that to make me feel better, are you?"

"Yes, I really mean it. Now, unless you want to explain to Hinata why you're dressed like that, I would recommend putting something on, since I think she's about to wake up."

Sakura found her bra and put it back on, right before Hinata woke up. They all got dressed, and exited the tent.

After a quick breakfast, the group broke camp and returned to Konoha. After learning that the rest of Kurenai's team had nothing other to report other than what happened the day before, Naruto told them that he would do the report and sent them on their way. Once they were in Tsunade's office, Naruto gave his report on what happened, leaving out only what happened in the tent, since it wasn't really her business, and it had no effect on the mission.

"So let me get this straight, you now have full access to Kyuubi's chakra, it doesn't hurt you anymore, you met your father, fought four members of Akatsuki, killing two of them, fixed the Kazekage's seal, and allowed an insane demon some freedom?"

"Uhh, basically. Except that Shukaku isn't insane anymore. The seal was messing with her head."

"Alright, get out of my office. You get the next week off."

As they left, Naruto couldn't help but yell out, "later, baa-chan," right as he closed the door, much to Tsunade's disapproval.

Xxxxxxxxxx

"So what do we do now?" Hinata asked as they walked out of the Hokage tower.

"I'm going to get some ramen!" Naruto hollered out, while heading off in that direction.

While Naruto went off to stuff his face, Sakura dragged Hinata over to Naruto's house to have a talk with her.

"We need to talk," she said to Hinata, "about Naruto."

"Okay," Hinata replied, unsure of where she was going with the conversation.

"I like him, you like him, and he thinks he likes both of us. We both like him too much to hurt him by forcing him to pick one of us, so what do we do?"

xxxxxxxxxx

Back with Naruto, he had made his way to Ichiraku's Ramen, and was in the middle of his seventh bowl when someone sat down next to him.

"Ahh! Iruka-sensei!"

"Naruto! When did you get back?"

"A little while ago. How ya been?"

"Good. Konoha's missed you. It's been too quiet while you've been gone."

They talked for a while, while Naruto inhaled almost twenty bowls of ramen. Finally satisfied, he made his way back home. When he got there, he didn't notice anyone else there, and decided to just go to bed, since it was starting to get dark.

Meanwhile, Sakura was having problems sleeping again. It wasn't because of her bra, since she didn't have one on at the moment, but because she couldn't get comfortable on her bed. She tossed and turned for a couple hours, until she finally realized why she couldn't fall asleep.

'Damn, did I really get that used to sleeping on Naruto's arm?'

Deciding the only way she would get any sleep was to sneak into Naruto's room, she quick got dressed and made her way over to his house. She jumped the wall, and then summoned Yuuka.

"What do you want?" the small fox asked, yawning.

"I need you to help me find Naruto's room," she told the fox.

"That's it?"

"Well, yeah, but I don't know my way around his house."

"Oh, fine, let's go."

Sakura followed Yuuka up to the house, and snuck in. as she climbed the stairs, she almost ran into Hinata, who was quietly walking towards Naruto's room as well. Figuring she could ask Hinata about Naruto's room, she dispelled Yuuka back to the fox world.

"So, Hinata, what are you doing sneaking into Naruto's room?" Sakura whispered.

"I could ask the same of you," she replied.

"Couldn't sleep."

"Me either."

Both girls then made their way into Naruto's room, and Sakura quickly changed back into her sleep shirt and underwear, and they both climbed into the large bed, leaving Naruto none the wiser as to the fact that he had guests in his bed.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Naruto awoke to the sun in his face, and decided to go out and train before he got some breakfast. Except he couldn't move his arms, or his legs. It was like there were weights on his limbs, which upon further inspection, proved to be relatively accurate. He just hung his head, realizing that he shouldn't be that surprised that the girls had snuck into his room in the middle of the night. They had, after all, spent the last week sleeping in the same position.

Feeling movement against his left side, Naruto looked over just in time to see Hinata waking up.

"Mmmhhhhhmmmmmmmm," Hinata mumbled as she woke up. She was so asleep still that she was able to look at Naruto's face from a distance of less than a foot without blushing at all.

"Hi Hinata-chan," he replied.

"Naruto…kun," she said next, picking her head up just enough to look at him straight on.

He just laughed, "It's morning, Hinata-chan."

She put her head back down on his shoulder, "Don't care……….comfortable."

Naruto started rubbing her back with his left hand, sending chakra to his fingers.

"," she let out, "that…….feels so good, Naru……kun."

"Ya know, it feels even better if it's direct contact," Sakura said, leaning up on Naruto's right side.

Hinata picked her head up again, much more awake. Naruto and Sakura had to stifle giggles as she had a bunch of hair in her face. Naruto thought it was cute, and Sakura just thought it was funny to see a Hyuuga with bedhead.

"What do you mean, direct contact?" Hinata asked.

"It means you would have to take your shirt off," Naruto replied.

Hinata instantly went the darkest red they had yet seen while she contemplated taking her shirt off in front of Naruto and Sakura.

"It's not like he can see anything, and it is well worth it," Sakura said, "He gave me one a few days ago."

She eventually decided to try it, and had Naruto look away while she took her shirt off. Once she was situated, Naruto turned back to her.

"Uhh, Sakura-chan, I need my other arm."

"Oh, fine," she said, while sliding off of him.

"Lay back down, I'll give you one too."

"Okay."

He averted his eyes as Sakura whipped her shirt off, and once both girls were comfortable on the bed he began to give each of them a massage while he sat between them. Before long, they were both moaning into the bed, and Naruto had to hold back laughs at how good he could make them feel. Shortly thereafter, he found a spot on Sakura's lower back that would make her shiver if he ran his fingers lightly across it. He found a similar spot on Hinata, except hers made her squirm a little.

A few minutes later, both girls had to tell him to stop, since he was about to make them both orgasm just from a gentle massage. Neither girl thought it was possible to get that kind of reaction from just a massage, and Naruto couldn't believe his massage had that much potential. _'Imagine if I was using both hands on one of them. They'd be c- NO!!! DAMN YOU ERO-SENNIN!!! YOU'VE CORRUPTED MY MIND!!!!!'_

"You two should've let me finish," Naruto complained, "I was almost done, too."

"Sorry, Naruto, but you have no idea what you were doing to us," Sakura panted out.

Naruto leaned close to her ear, "And if I did know what it was doing to you? Would you let me keep going then?"

"I can't, Naruto. I have a shift at the hospital in a little while and I have to go home and get cleaned up."

"You can do that here. Just send a clone to go get whatever you need from your apartment."

She thought about it for a few seconds, before forming a shadow clone of herself, and sent it off to go get the stuff she needed.

"Hinata, do you want me to keep going on you, too?" Naruto asked.

Hinata was a lot closer to the edge than Sakura was, since she had been raised to not touch herself in any sort of 'inappropriate' manner, so her body had almost no resistance to these kinds of feelings. Sakura, on the other hand, had been in this situation a few times before, so she could take a little more before she reached her limit.

Blushing furiously, Hinata signaled to Naruto to keep going, and he resumed his very sensuous massage. The scents they were giving off were driving him insane, but he managed to control his own urges and continue his ministrations.

Hinata didn't last much longer, and cried out as her very first orgasm slammed its way through her body. She lay there panting while Naruto turned his full attention to Sakura. Being able to employ both hands on the same person drastically increased how good if felt, and it wasn't too much longer before Sakura moaning out Naruto's name as her own orgasm hit.

He left them on the bed and took a quick shower, and when he was done, they were both still lying on the bed. Seeing Sakura's clone return with the stuff she needed, he managed to wake her up enough, (since both girls had fallen asleep) to tell her to put her shirt back on and go take a shower. Hinata he left on the bed, since she didn't have anything to do that day.

Once Sakura was gone, he went out into the back yard, created a hundred clones, and got to training. Once he had killed all hundred of his clones, he ran through all his ninjutsu, or at least the ones he could do in his yard.

Xxxxxxxx

Their week off passed quickly, and they got their next assignment, which was to run a sweep along the Fire-Sound border for a missing nin. Their target was only a chunin, but she was exceptionally sneaky, and had so far evaded capture. Naruto was a little apprehensive about the mission, but took it anyway. Their search pattern would take them down the same route that Sasuke had used when he fled the village. They gathered up their supplies, and set out to search their area. Along the way, he pointed out all the areas the retrieval team fought in, until they reached their campsite near the east edge of the Fire-Sound border.


	20. Chapter 20

**Ch 20**

Upon their arrival, they immediately set out on setting up camp, with Hinata setting up the tent, Sakura gathering some wood, and Naruto out scouting the area. Dinner was a quiet affair, and the trio retired for the night soon after, with Naruto leaving several clones on watch.

The night passed uneventfully, and they broke camp and set out shortly after dawn. They started out their sweep in relatively high spirits, but the girls could detect a rather strong mood change in Naruto the farther west they went. He was still talking to them, but he was getting quieter as they went, and it was unnerving the girls.

"What's wrong Naruto," Sakura asked, once she couldn't take the curiosity anymore, "Why have you gone all quiet?"

"We're close," he replied quietly, a tone which the girls to be very much at odds with his normal personality, "to where me and Sasuke fought, the Valley of the End."

They emerged from the forest at that point, right by the old battlefield. While the girls were both imagining what had happened there, the events were playing in Naruto's head like he was watching a movie.

It wasn't just the fight, either. The whole mission replayed itself in perfect detail from his perspective, until the actual fight started, when his memories seemed to take on an almost third-person feel to them. Every time he was injured in his memory, he felt the phantom pain as if he was currently receiving said injuries.

He was so lost in thought, that he didn't notice the missing chunin until she launched a raiton jutsu of some kind at him, and then the only reason he noticed it was because it made him fall over. It was only when he tried to get back up that he realized just how screwed he was, as he could barely move his arms, and couldn't move his legs at all.

"Wow, you guys are pathetic," his attacker said, emerging from the bushes, "I actually thought this would be difficult."

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata screamed out, as she ran over to the fallen blond, "Are you ok?"

"Yuri Miki, wanted nin of Konoha for theft of multiple items, considered C-rank criminal. Known user of lightning jutsu."

"What? I'm only listed as C-rank? I should be at least B, if not A. I mean, come on, I just fried your friend there!" Yuri screamed.

"Uggh, damn, that hurt," Naruto mumbled, as he managed to drag himself up into an almost sitting position, before looking to address Yuri, "It'll take a lot more juice than that to kill me!"

"How in the hell are you not dead? I put enough power in that jutsu to kill a horse!"

"Heh, I'm complicated, that's how."

Sakura, who also had traveled over to where Naruto was, spoke next, "Yeah, you obviously didn't kill him, so just give yourself up now, and we don't have to fight. The only punishment you will likely have is a fine." She then turned her head a little, while keeping her eyes on Yuri. "Is he gonna be ok, Hinata?" she asked quietly.

"He seems fine," she replied, "although her jutsu messed up his nervous system a little. He can't move his legs at the moment, but he should be able to soon."

Sakura brought her attention back to Yuri, "So how about it? If we fight, you will lose. I can put it in your medical report that you snapped under stress, and they will lessen your punishment."

"You're a medic-nin?" Yuri asked.

"That's right."

"Then go to hell!" Yuri screamed, while launching her lightning attack at Sakura. Sakura just punched the ground, and a huge chunk of it sprung up to defend against her lightning attack. Still, it almost made its way through her barrier.

Jumping on top of it, Sakura screamed, "Just because I'm a medic-nin doesn't mean I can't fight!"

She then launched herself off of the boulder she was standing on, and drover her fist into the side of Yuri's face, sending her flying into a tree. Right before Yuri hit, though, she switched herself out with a log. Flying out of the bushes, she landed a kick to Sakura's backside, which very much enraged the medic-nin. She dug her hands into the ground, and ripped out a chunk about the size of her torso, and chucked it at Yuri, who was unable to dodge in time, and caught the chunk right in the face.

Hinata, on the other hand, was poking and jabbing at Naruto, re-directing his chakra to try and fix his nervous system faster. She had finished with his arms and one leg, and was about half-way through the second, when the worst thing possible that could happen to them, happened.

A sword pierced through the chest of Yuri from behind, killing her instantly. Normally, they would consider this a good thing, and they did, at least until they saw who was behind the blade.

"Ku ku ku, hello, Naruto-kun. You seem to have gotten yourself into a bit of a tangle," he said, after his blade retracted into his mouth.

Naruto, who had struggled to his feet, snapped back at their new guest, "What the hell do you want, teme?"

"I don't want anything, from you, anyway. I was just passing through, and happened to notice some fighting, and decided to check it out."

Sakura took what she thought was a good opening, and charged Orochimaru, for that's who it was. She managed to back the snake up several feet, before she overextended herself on one of her swings, giving Orochimaru an opening. Seizing the opportunity, he quickly counter-attacked, landing several devastating blows to her midsection, and ended with a blow to the face, stunning her for a few moments, as well as knocking the wind out of her.

Naruto tried to run to her aide, but fell over when he tried to put weight on his unresponsive left leg. Hinata, however, was able to make it over to the snake, and launched a flurry of Jyuuken strikes at him. She was able to hit him several tomes in his arms, although none of the hits were enough to prevent him from using his arms.

Orochimaru then jumped back, launching snakes at her from his sleeve. She countered these with a kaiten, shredding the snakes into dust. Suddenly, a divination field appeared under Orochimaru.

"Hakke: Rokujuuyonshou!" she shouted, launching her attack. She sped through the strikes, landing just about all of them. For the last strike, she substituted the normal two-finger poke for an open palm hit, forcing Orochimaru back several feet. Her attack finished, she stood, panting slightly due to the exertion of her attack.

To her horror, she watched as Orochimaru dissolved into mud, and felt his presence right behind her. Eyes widening from shock, she tried to spin around to avoid his hit, but wasn't fast enough to escape his neck chop, and she fell to the ground, unconscious.

He wasn't able to do anything else to her, though, as he was sent flying into a large tree courtesy of Sakura's fist. "Where's Sasuke-kun? What have you done to him?" she screamed out.

Rising up, Orochimaru calmly snapped his jaw back into place, before walking back into the clearing, cracking his neck. "You must be Tsunade's student. Pity I have to kill you now. As far as what I've done to Sasuke-kun, I've done nothing that he hasn't asked me to," he said, smirking.

Remembering that Orochimaru smirking is never a good thing, she immediately launched herself into the air, right as a massive snake erupted from the spot she had just been standing. She tried to twist herself out of the way, but was unable to escape it, and the giant snake wrapped itself around her, squeezing tightly. It was enough to tell her that she was captured, but not enough to crush her. Sakura then tried to kawarimi herself with a log, but the snake bit her, and she immediately lost control of her chakra.

"You won't be escaping now. That poison, while not lethal, has corrupted your ability to mold even the slightest amount of chakra."

"Let her go, teme!" Naruto shouted, having struggled back to his feet.

"What are you going to do, Naruto-kun? You can barely stand at the moment, let alone run and attack," Orochimaru replied.

"Good thing I wasn't planning on taking you on directly, then, isn't it?"

"What, you're gonna send some toads after me? It'll never work."

"I know sending toads after you wouldn't work. The thing is, I don't summon toads anymore."

"Oh? What do you summon now?" Orochimaru asked, the boy having actually peaked his interest.

"Someone who would like very much to meet you," he said, as he bit his thumb and flashed through the seals, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

"**YOU! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!!! YOU KILLD MY MATE AND MY KITS AND THEN MADE ME GET STUCK INSIDE THAT BRAT FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS!!!**

"Huh? You can summon foxes? How is that supposed to help you?"

Kyuubi then unfurled his tails, fanning them out behind him, allowing Orochimaru to count them all.

"Oh, you summoned Kyuubi, how nice."

"**DIE MORTAL!"** Kyuubi snarled out, as he launched a giant fireball out of his mouth. It hit Orochimaru full on, but the snake escaped the damage by puking up a new copy of himself. The fox pressed the attack, but was unable to cause any severe damage since Orochimaru was dodging in ways not normally possible for a human.

Their battle raged on for a while, Kyuubi launching various fire attacks at the snake, who countered with wind and earth. Eventually, though, they both began to tire out, and Kyuubi made a mistake. He backed up to avoid a swing from Orochimaru's Kusanagi, and stepped into a mud puddle, causing him to lose his balance for an instant. However, an instant was all Orochimaru needed to fatally stab Kyuubi, who dispersed back into Naruto's seal.

Sakura was still being held by the snake, and Hinata was still unconscious. Naruto couldn't put weight on his left leg, but he had regained the ability to move it. Orochimaru slowly began to walk towards Naruto, obviously intending to kill him if he was reading his expression right, and frantically spoke to Kyuubi.

'Umm, is there anything else we can do?'

"**Well, you can summon me again, at the cost of the rest of your chakra, and I can fight against him, and possibly win, but I don't know how well I will do in such a limited state."**

'Ok, what else?'

"**You can fight him and die, call on my power, fight him and die, or just lie there and die. You can't move well enough to attack, and I can't fix your nervous system very fast, at least not from that electrical attack."**

'So I guess this is it, then?'

"**You giving up already?"**

'No, not yet, I just don't know what to do,' he thought to the Kyuubi, while the rest of his mind flashed over all the things he had done in the past, and all the things he wanted to do in the future.

An idea slowly formed in his head as he watched his memories fly by, and by the end he convinced himself to try it,

'Kyuubi, I have an idea.'

"**Well, great, get to it."**

'It involves you.'

"**So? I'll do whatever I have to to kill that snake."**

'Even let me die?'

"**Huh?"**

'If I remove the seal, it should let you out with your full power. That would be more than enough to kill Orochimaru, but I don't know what it will do to me when I remove it.'

"**You're serious, about letting me out? You think I've lived up to my end of the deal?"**

Flashback

A much younger Naruto is in front of Kyuubi's cage, arguing with the fox.

"**Just you wait, gaki. I will get out of here, and I will make sure to eat you first, before I go and slaughter that damn village of yours."**

Naruto had talked with the fox several times already, and no longer feared its words. "As if! There's no way in hell that I'm gonna let you out. You're stuck with me until the day I die, and then you're gonna die with me!" Naruto shouted at the fox.

Kyuubi slammed into the bars of the cage, but Naruto didn't even flinch, even though he was standing right on the outside of the bars. He glared at the fox, eyes shining with determination. "I'll kill myself before I ever let you take over my body again," he said, referencing when he had gone four-tails for the first time, and injured Jiraiya in the process.

"**You wouldn't. You don't have enough guts to actually kill yourself. I can see it in your eyes. You care too much about your 'precious people' to go through with it."**

"You don't think I would?" Naruto asked, pulling a kunai out, and holding it over his heart, "You think I'm bluffing?"

"**No, brat, I don't think you're bluffing, I KNOW you're bluffing."**

Jiraiya, who was watching Naruto's real body, watched in shock and horror as Naruto, his consciousness still in his mindscape, slowly pulled a kunai out, holding it over his heart.

"I'm not bluffing," both Jiraiya and Kyuubi heard, right as he plunged the kunai into his chest. Jiraiya launched himself at the one in Naruto's physical body, and managed to stop it from puncturing his heart, albeit barely. Kyuubi, on the other hand, flooded his system with as much chakra as he could get out from behind the seal, and was also able to prevent him from killing them.

"**Alright, you've proven your point. If I try to take over again, you will kill both of us by taking your own life. What do you want in return for not killing yourself?"**

"I want full access to your abilities and chakra whenever I want, without you having to worry about you taking over."

"**What do I get out of this?"**

"I will let you see the outside world through my senses."

"**That's not good enough. I want to get some freedom out of this. Give me a clone to take over, and I'll consider it even."**

"How do I know you won't kill me in my sleep?"

"**Idiot, you have to form the clone first. It won't have any chakra, and if I did kill you, I would end up killing myself in the process, and I want to keep living. Other than that, I give my word that I won't. A demons word is considered law, and in all my life I have never broken it."**

"Deal."

"**Good. Now I have one of my own. I can't give you full access to all my chakra, since it would kill you. I will, however give as much as you are able to use without killing us. If you let me take over your body, it can handle a little bit more, but the most you can draw is about five percent of my maximum chakra."**

"That's it?"

"**Don't think I'm screwing you out of your end of the deal. Five percent of my chakra is more than you think. When you pulled four tails, that was a little over two percent."**

"Oh, ok."

"**Also, you need to wear less orange. I will not have my container be a billboard for death. I know you like it, but damn, tone it down. Next, I want you to give up the toad contract."**

"What? why?"

"**Because I want you to sing mine. Foxes are better than toads, and you have an affinity with foxes. Besides, foxes are your true family summon."**

"Wait, you know who my family is?"

"**Not is, was. The last time I had access to them was when I was sealed, and before you ask, I'm not going to tell you who they are, because they had a lot of enemies, and I don't believe that you are strong enough to face them if they come after you. When you are strong enough, I will tell you about them. The only thing I can tell you is that the contract comes from your mother."**

They continued to flesh out their new arrangement, and Kyuubi told Naruto that the only reason he attacked the village was because it attacked him first, although he did not say how. Feeling sorry for the fox, Naruto decided that after the fox had helped him enough, and through him the village, he would try to find a way to let him out of his prison, and if he couldn't do that, he would go after the people who attacked him.

End Flashback

'Yeah, Kyuubi, I think you've met your end of the deal. You met it a while ago, but this definitely confirms it.'

"………**.I don't know what to say."**

'You don't have to say anything to me.'

"**Thank you………Naruto."**

'Kyuubi…..'

"**Hmm?"**

'If I don't make it through this, make sure to tell the girls that I'm sorry and help them if they need it.'

"**I will."**

Naruto then exited his mindscape, to find that Orochimaru was right in front of him, and about to stab him with his sword. He hesitated, though, when Naruto looked up at him, smiling.

"This is the end of you, teme. I hope you enjoy you're time in hell."

"Oh? What are you gonna do about it? You can't move."

"This. **Shiki Fuujin, Kai!!**"


	21. Chapter 21

**Ch 21**

"**Shiki Fuujin, Kai!!"**

As soon as Naruto spoke, a massive amount of chakra exploded out of Naruto's body, flinging the snake sannin into the statue of Uchiha Madara, impacting right in its left eye. The explosion of chakra also knocked him over, and he landed on his back, as chakra continued to pour out of his body, dissolving his jacket and shirt in the process, but not harming his pants, sandals, or forehead protector, for which he was grateful. At least nobody would have to look at his naked corpse.

The chakra began to gather above him, and soon the Kyuubi's outline became visible. As chakra continued to pour out of him, Kyuubi's form began to look more and more solid. This process took several minutes, and Naruto was screaming in agony the whole time.

The chakra also woke up Hinata, and dispelled the snake holding Sakura, and both girls slowly crawled over to Naruto. They got as close as a few feet, before the amount of chakra coming out of him was too strong to push through. When it suddenly stopped, they both crawled up to him, and found that he was breathing, and his seal was glowing bright red. It then flashed once, before slowly fading out of existence, as if it were never there. His whisker marks, however, stayed.

Kyuubi took his first true breath of fresh air in seventeen years, and immediately felt better. He could sense that the kit,….no, that Naruto was still alive, and was actually relieved. Not wanting to waste any tome with the snake, he decided to use his most powerful attack, or at least a version of it. If he used the full-power version on the snake, it would kill the humans he was standing over. He let out several balls of chakra from his body, and collected them in front of him. He compressed the chakra into a small ball, before eating it. The compressed chakra reacted violently in his body, and began to expand. He slowly let it build up in his mouth, until he let it out in a devastatingly powerful beam, aimed right at the snake.

Orochimaru could only watch as his life ended, his last thoughts were of wishing he had killed Naruto in the forest of death all those years ago. The massive chakra ball completely disintegrated his body, as well as both statues, the waterfall, and part of the canyon, turning it all into a huge, smoking crater. Even the legendary Kusanagi was destroyed in the explosion.

With Orochimaru dead, Kyuubi shrank down to the size of a small dog, before walking up to Naruto.

"**How is he doing?"**

"Well, medically he's fine, just exhausted," Sakura said, "although now that he doesn't have your chakra anymore I have no idea when he'll wake up."

"Ano, what do you mean, Naruto doesn't have his chakra anymore?" Hinata asked, since she had still been unconscious when Naruto released the seal.

"**Naruto released the seal that kept me within him. I am now free, and he is no longer a jinchuuriki."**

"Oh," was all the reply she could come up with.

Masami then suddenly appeared next to them, "Umm, who summoned me this time?" she asked confusedly, since she didn't recognize the chakra signature of the person who called her.

"**I did. Naruto decided to let me out, and I am free again. I must go back to Yorokori and set the village straight, and Naruto needs to be taken back to Konoha, along with the dead girl over there,"** Kyuubi said, pointing to the dead missing nin.

"Of course, Kyuubi-sama," Masami said, bowing low, "Welcome back."

"**I must be going now, good luck to you all. When Naruto wakes up, let me know. I want to see how he's doing."**

"Will do. Have fun doing whatever it is you need to do," Sakura replied, before Kyuubi dispersed back to his village in a huge cloud of smoke.

The girls then proceeded to seal the body of Yuri into a scroll, before loading Naruto onto Masami's back. They then summoned Akiko and Yukiko and rode back to the village. Along the way, Naruto woke up long enough to tell them not to say anything about the fact that Orochimaru was dead, and if they had to, to tell baa-chan to wait on telling everybody until he was awake, and to not tell anybody about Kyuubi being free, for obvious reasons. The girls agreed, and he lapsed back into unconsciousness.

Xxxxxxxxxx

When Naruto woke up next, it was early morning, so he knew that he had been out for at least the rest of the day, and the following night. Looking down, he saw Kotaro curled up at his feet, sleeping peacefully. The young fox soon woke, though, and immediately greeted Naruto.

"Morning, Naruto."

"Yeah, you too," he said, while failing to hold back a yawn, "How long have I been sleeping?"

"About a week," the fox replied, "and before you freak out, you need to be quiet. You're not the only one in this room."

"I wasn't planning on freaking out. In fact, I'm surprised I'm not dead," he told the fox, "so who are we sharing with?"

"I don't know. It's a woman, mid-twenties I think, and she smells like dango and snakes."

"Dango and snakes? Uhhhhhh, oh, I know her. She's the crazy snake lady from my first chunin exam. Her name's Anko. What's she in for?"

"I don't know. She's been unconscious since before they let me in here. Hang on, I'll go look at her chart," the fox said, as he jumped off the end of the bed. He padded quietly over to the end of Anko's bed, and looked at the medical chart that was hanging there for a short amount of time before returning to Naruto's feet.

"It says something about some kind of mark disappearing from her neck."

'She had one of Oro-teme's marks, too. Maybe that's what it was,' Naruto thought. "Can you see the left side of her neck?"

"Let me look," Kotaro said, before going back around Anko's bed. He jumped up onto it, being careful not to disturb her, and looked at her neck for a while, before returning to Naruto. "I don't know what I was supposed to find, but there was no mark on her neck."

"She had one of Orochimaru's curse marks," Naruto told him, "It must've gone away when Kyuubi killed him."

"Huh." He was cut off from further thought by someone walking into the room to check on Anko, and since his bed was the one farther from the door, and the curtain was pulled out, he couldn't tell who it was until they walked over to his side.

"N-Naruto? You're awake."

"Hi Ino. I didn't know you were a medic-nin."

"Well, I'm not as good as Forehead or Hinata, but I can do some. How do you feel?"

"Pretty good," Naruto said, as his stomach growled, causing him to laugh a little, "and hungry."

She made a couple quick notes on his chart, before looking back at him, "Alright, I gotta go tell Hokage-sama that you're up, and I'll tell them to send you some breakfast."

"Oooh, can it be ramen?" Naruto asked with enthusiasm.

"No, baka, the hospital doesn't serve ramen for breakfast," she said, before storming out, complaining about him being an idiot.

Having nothing else to do, he talked with Kotaro about what had been going on around the village for the last week, and ate his breakfast when it arrived. There was even some for Kotaro, and Naruto ate fast, even by his standards. He had a weeks worth of food to make up for after all.

After his breakfast, he took a nap, since was still feeling tired, and when he woke up again, he realized that Anko had woken up as well.

"Anko?" he asked, trying to get her attention.

"Who is it?"

Naruto reached out and pulled back the curtain, "It's me."

"Oh, what do you want, brat?"

"How's your neck?" he asked.

She looked up at him in shock, "how'd you know?"

"I know why it went away."

"You do? How?" she asked, almost as if begging him to tell, since her biggest problem in life had been removed.

"Orochimaru's dead," he told her, "My summons killed him."

She just stared at him, trying to wrap her head around the fact that the man who had screwed over her whole life was dead now. "How?" she eventually got out.

"You know what I am, right?" he asked, instead of answering her question.

"Yeah, you hold the fox, big deal, I don't care about that. Tell me how you killed him."

"You know that I summon foxes now, too, right?"

"Yeah, I heard about it, why?"

"The boss of the foxes is Kyuubi, and I don't hold him anymore. I released him and then he killed the bastard for killing his mate and kits, which is the reason he attacked Konoha in the first place," he said quietly.

Anko went into another period of thought, before saying, "So, after making the most powerful creature in existence, which was sealed inside you at birth, you're personal summon, you unleashed said creature upon the world?"

"Uhh, something like that, yeah. He's back in the summon world right now, sorting everything out from being gone for so long."

Anko was unable to continue questioning him, because the door opened at that point, allowing Tsunade, Sakura, Ino, and Hinata to enter the room.

"Hi," Naruto said from his bed, "baa-chan."

"Nice to see ya, brat. What happened?"

Naruto thought for a moment, and then asked, "Baa-chan, is Gai's team and the rest of Ino's team here?"

"Uhh, they should be, why?"

"Ino, can you go get them? I have something to tell them."

"You mean, you're gonna tell them?" Tsunade asked.

"Yes I'm going to tell them. They deserve to know."

"Tell us what?" Ino asked.

"Go get everybody and bring them here. Hell, bring Kiba and Shino too, if you see them. They already know, but they might as well be here."

"Ok, I'll be right back," she said, before leaving to go find said people.

"Baa-chan, I'll go into more detail about it when everybody else gets here, but the reason Anko's mark is gone is because Orochimaru is dead."

"What?"

"He attacked us while we were fighting that missing nin, and it ended up with Kyuubi killing him."

They only had to wait a short while longer until Ino returned with the rest of the rookies, and they all managed to squeeze into the small room.

"Ok, we're all here, mind telling us what's all going on?" Ino asked.

"What I'm about to tell you is considered an S-rank secret here. Hinata and Sakura know all of what I'm going to say, Neji, Kiba and Shino know part of it, so please don't interrupt. What we were all taught in the academy about the Kyuubi isn't true, or at least not entirely. Yes, the Fourth fought it, yes he defeated it, but no it didn't actually die. Even he couldn't kill something that powerful, so he sealed it instead. He sealed it into his own child, me…."

"So, you're the son of the Fourth, and he sealed the Kyuubi in you when you were born?"

"Yeah."

"Mendoukusei."

He then answered everyone else's questions about him holding the fox, and then told them about his last mission, up through the part where he began to talk to Kyuubi.

"Ok, this is the part that only Hinata-chan and Sakura-chan know, because they were there, and Anko got the quick version after I woke up. The fight ended with Orochimaru dead, but none of us killed him. Kyuubi did. I know I said he dispelled, and he did, but I let him back out by removing the seal on me, allowing him to come completely out. Kyuubi is no longer sealed inside me. He is currently in the summon realm getting back up to speed on what he missed while he was stuck in my gut."

"Hmm, Hanabi-sama will not like to hear that," Neji said.

"Yosh! This is just another example of Naruto's youthfulness!!!" said Lee. He kept on for several more minutes about Naruto and his actions being youthful, until he couldn't take it anymore.

"Lee," Naruto said, interrupting him, "if you say one more thing about youth, I'm going to feed you to Kyuubi."

"That would be most un-youthful, Naruto."

"That's it!" Naruto shouted, and flashed through some seals, summoning Kyuubi.

"**Oh, you're awake. How are you doing?"**

"I'm about to go insane. Eat him, please," Naruto said, pointing at Lee.

"**Umm, no. He looks too disgusting to eat, especially with those eyebrows."**

"Please?"

"**No. I don't want to get sick. Now, if you don't have anything else for me to do besides ask questions, I'll be going now. When they let you out of here, call me out again. I have some new things to teach you to make up for not having access to my chakra anymore."**

Kyuubi then poofed out, and everyone in the room was shocked. Well, those who didn't know him were shocked. Naruto was on quite good terms with the most powerful entity known to man. Who would've thought?

Xxxxxxxxxx

He spent another week in the hospital, much to his dismay. Anko was there for some of it, so he at least had someone to talk to, even though he didn't always understand what she was talking about. His friends popped in randomly, to ask him questions about his life and such, which he had no problems answering. He was quite happy with the fact that none of them abandoned him, and decided that he would but his best effort ever into learning whatever it was that Kyuubi wanted to teach him.


	22. Chapter 22

**Ch 22**

The first thing Naruto did upon leaving the hospital was to go home and get a shirt to replace the one that the hospital gave him. After that, he went straight to Ichiraku's and had thirty bowls of ramen. Stomach now full, he returned to his house, and summoned Kyuubi in the back yard, so he could figure out what the fox wanted to teach him.

"So what you gonna teach me?"

"**I'm not gonna teach you anything. I'm going to teach your whole team, if they want to."**

"Okay, so what is it?"

"**Get Hinata and Sakura here first, and that old man, what's-his-name, with the white hair."**

"Ero-sennin? What do you want him for?"

"**Just do it. I'll explain once everybody's here."**

"Okay," he said, before summoning Akiko and Yukiko. "Can you two please go find Sakura-chan and Ero-sennin? Sakura-chan should either be at her apartment or the hospital, and Ero-sennin should be peeping on the women's side of one of the hot springs, in baa-chans office, or the hospital."

"Why would he be in those places?" Akiko asked.

"Well, he spies on the girls in the hot springs so he can write his perverted books, gets caught and sent to baa-chan's office, and then she beats the shit out of him and he ends up in the hospital."

"Oh, ok." The foxes dashed off to go find their targets, and Naruto went in the house and got Hinata. They were joined a short while later by a fuming Sakura, and an unconscious Jiraiya who was being dragged by his feet, face-down, by the two foxes.

"**Do we dare ask what happened?"**

"He was peeping on me and Ino-pig while we were in the spring," she said, as she slowly calmed down. "I heard Jiraiya talking to somebody, and noticed a small hole in the side of the fence right next to where his voice was coming from, so I got dressed, walked out, and bashed him in the head."

Jiraiya started to wake up then, and was just about to ask Sakura why she hit him when Naruto glared at him and told him to shut up. He decided to ask a much safer question instead. "So why am I here?"

"**I am planning on teaching these three something like what you have with the toads, if they want to."**

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"**I want to teach these three to be sages."**

"You what? I didn't even know other summons could do that."

"Um, Ero-sennin, what is he talking about?"

"Um, how to put this, you know that chakra is a combination of spiritual energy and physical energy, right?" Naruto nodded his head, as did the girls. "Well, there is another energy out there and it is called natural energy, and it comes from the environment. When someone decides to learn senjutsu it means that they are learning to use natural energy, and since it comes from the environment, it's basically unlimited."

"**Something like that."**

"Awesome. When do we start?" Naruto asked.

"**Not for a little while, yet. I can't teach you here, there are too many distractions. Same with Yorokori. The Stripping Sands would work, but we would have to leave too much to get supplies, so that leaves us with going back to Jungle Country."**

"Um, how long would we have to be gone?" Sakura asked.

"**I'm not sure. It depends on how long it takes you to learn, really. It could be anywhere from six months to ten years."**

"Ano, you're sure we can all learn this?" Hinata asked quietly.

"**Yes. You all have the potential to learn senjutsu. If you decide to learn it, you will all be at or near sannin level when we return."**

"I'm in," said Naruto.

"Me too," replied Hinata.

"Same," came from Sakura.

"**Thank you, old man. You can go now, I don't need you for anything else."**

"B-but I'm a trained senjutsu user! Surely you can make use of my talent!"

"**If I was teaching them toad senjutsu, then yes, but I'm not. I'm teaching them kitsune senjutsu, which is entirely different. Besides, I think there is mixed bathing in about an hour at one of the springs."**

"Oh, !" he was gone almost instantly, and left the rest of them rolling on the ground laughing. Well, except Kyuubi, he just chuckled a little.

"**Alright,"** Kyuubi said once they had all recovered, **"Go tell the Hokage about this and be sure not to commit to being back by any particular time."**

"Why don't you come with us?" Sakura asked, "I'm sure she'll have questions that none of us can answer."

"**Alright. Let's go,"** he said, as he shrunk down to a more manageable size before jumping onto Naruto's shoulder.

"Oh, don't fan your tails out while we're walking there," Naruto said.

"**I won't."**

The trip to the tower was uneventful, and they were able to get a meeting with Tsunade without having to wait.

"What do you want, gaki?" Tsunade asked.

"Well, hello to you too, baa-chan. We need to go away for a while to train."

"Ok, this has what exactly to do with me?"

"We gotta go to Jungle Country to do it."

"Huh? Why there?"

"**I'm going to teach these three senjutsu and that is the best place to do it currently,"** Kyuubi said from his perch on Naruto's shoulder, **"Before you ask, I don't know how long we will be gone."**

"So you want me to sign off on a trip to another country, for an undetermined amount of time, so that the three of you can learn senjutsu?"

"**Yeah, that's right."**

"What am I supposed to do about Hinata's team? They're short a member now."

"Find a replacement, duh," said Naruto, "It can't be that hard."

"Alright, I'll let you go, but be careful. If something happens to you, I'll resurrect you and beat your ass so bad you'll think Ibiki's torture is a pre-school time-out."

The three of them shuddered at the thought of Ibiki's torture being considered time-out in comparison to what she could do, and vowed to make sure they came back, if for nothing else than their own sanity.

"**Thank you, but we must be going now. We'll leave tomorrow morning."**

"Alright, now get out. I've got paperwork to do."

As they exited the office, Naruto stuck his head back in, "Later, baa-chan!" and had to duck under a massive paperweight that ended up going through the wall behind him.

"**Alright, first stop, new clothes, for all of you."**

"What's wrong with the way we're dressed?" Sakura asked indignantly.

"**Tell me, how often does one see red, orange, and bright purple in the jungle?"**

"Umm, never. Oh, I see what you're saying. We'd stand out too much."

They went to the nearest shinobi clothing store, and surprisingly Naruto really didn't complain much about not wearing orange. It was even more of a shock to him when the owner actually let him in the store, and he almost fainted from the unusualness when he wasn't even over-charged.

They spent the rest of the day gathering the rest of their supplies, and then returned to their residences to finish up packing. Right as Naruto and Hinata were about to go to bed, though, Sakura showed up, obviously not wanting to sleep alone. Naruto invited her in, and he went up and launched himself onto the middle of the bed. While he was waiting for the girls to join him, he thought about how lucky he was to have them, and eventually his thoughts moved on to why they would want to be around him.

He knew that he wasn't the most observant person at times when it came to people having good feelings towards him, although he was almost always able to tell when people disliked him. He did recognize though that his relationships with the girls had changed significantly in the short amount of time he had been back from his trip with Ero-sennin; Sakura falling asleep on his chest topless and _not_ killing him when she woke up being one of the most obvious proofs of that.

He also realized that they weren't the only ones changing. He didn't really understand it, but he felt different when he was around them. He didn't have to hide his emotions like he did around everybody else. When he broke down that night in the desert, they hadn't judged him, and had helped him instead. When he wasn't around them he found himself wondering what they were doing or if they were thinking about him.

It was also weird for him to not have the fox inside him anymore, especially since they had started talking to each other. Though he wouldn't ever admit it, he missed the giant fuzz ball. He had started to look up to him as some sort of cross between a father and an older brother, something else he'd never admit.

He was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of the bedroom door opening, and he looked up to see his two most precious people in bathrobes slowly walking up to the bed, one on each side. He was so entranced by the way they were walking he missed the fact that Hinata's face was about the darkest it had ever been, and even Sakura's face was past the pink stage.

'It's like their stalking me or something,' Naruto thought as they walked up to him, 'I don't know if I should stay here and take it, or run away and hide.'

Hinata looked over at Sakura for support, and the pinkette nodded encouragingly. They both dropped their robes, and looked at Naruto to see his reaction.

Flashback

Sakura watched as Hinata began to follow Naruto up into the bedroom, but grabbed her arm to get her attention, "Come here, I got something special for us to wear tonight."

"Ehh? W-what do m-mean, special?"

"Follow me and I'll show you."

Sakura dragged Hinata into the downstairs bathroom and pulled two silk bathrobes out of a bag that neither Hinata nor Naruto noticed her bring in. Sakura went back into the bag, but before she came back out with whatever else was in it, she asked, "Do you trust me, Hinata?"

"Yeah."

"Good. I need you to strip completely and then close your eyes."

"EHH?"

"Just do it. The look on Naruto-kun's face when he sees us will be more than worth stepping a little outside your comfort zone, I promise."

Hinata waged a brief war within herself, but ultimately decided to try on whatever it was that Sakura brought with her. She could always just stay in the robe, after all. She slowly stripped off her night shirt, followed by her pants. She was very self-conscious about her body growing up, and even though she had been naked around some of the female servants at the Hyuuga estate, it always felt weird and made her uncomfortable.

Much to her surprise, standing naked in one of Naruto's bathrooms with Sakura looking her over didn't actually feel that out of place; the main thing she was feeling was the chill from the tile floor. Closing her eyes, she motioned Sakura to start doing whatever it was she was going to do.

"No peeking with your byakugan, either," Sakura said, and Hinata nodded slowly. The next couple of minutes were a rather strange experience for her, being dressed in panties and a bra that she had never seen before. The only thing she could tell about them was that they didn't seem to cover much, although she couldn't accurately tell how much was still exposed.

"Alright, I'm done with you, but keep your eyes closed while I put mine on," Sakura told her, and she spent the next few minutes listening to Sakura strip herself out of what she had been wearing, and slide into what she was going to be sleeping in.

Sakura turned her away from the mirror, and gently held her head so that she wouldn't be able to see what she was wearing, before telling her to open her eyes. Once they had re-adjusted to the light, she spun the Hyuuga girl around and let her take in their reflections.

Needless to say, Hinata was shocked. She had realized that the clothes that Sakura had put on her were revealing, but she didn't think it would be _that_ revealing. Hell, scraps was a better word to describe what she was wearing than clothes.

They were both wearing string bikinis; Hinata's a lavenderish white, and Sakura's was a random pattern of a rusty reddish brown on a white background. The tops barely covered their nipples, and the bottoms only covered the barest essentials. Hinata doubted she could even walk in what she was wearing without falling out of it, let alone _sleeping_ in it.

"Y-y-y-you ac-actually th-th-think I c-c-c-c-can wear th-th-this i-i-in f-f-f-ront of him?"

"It doesn't matter what I think. You're _going_ to wear it in front of him or I'll make you walk in there naked."

"Y-y-you w-wouldn't d-d-dare!"

"Yes I would. Part of the reason Naruto never notices you is that you don't show anything. Besides, this will also help build confidence in yourself. You shouldn't be hiding yourself in that huge jacket. You have nothing to be ashamed of. If I had a chest like that there's no way in hell I'd hide it like you do. Just trust me on this, ok?"

After a few minutes of hyperventilating, Hinata finally calmed down enough to agree to trust Sakura, and pulled one of the robes around herself, and while it covered up her chest relatively well, it showed a lot more leg than she was used to, as the robe only went down to just past her mid thigh.

Sakura quickly threw on the other robe, and they made their way up to Naruto's room, ready to either give him the sight of his life, or to kill him via blood loss.

End flashback

Naruto's jaw almost fell off when the girls dropped their robes. His next action was to immediately clamp both of his hands across his face to try and stop the massive nose bleed he could feel forming, and after closing his eyes and taking a couple deep breaths to steady himself, he was able to look them over without passing out.

Sakura was actually striking a bit of a pose, being many times more confident in herself than Hinata was, and Naruto found the cross between her pink hair, emerald eyes, the light blush on her face, what she was wearing and the way she was standing to be, well…….really hot.

Hinata on the other hand was red as a barn and trying to resist the urge to either try and cover herself, or run and hide. As he looked her over, he couldn't help but let his blush darken, and subtly shifted his position on the bed to try and hide his ever growing hardness. He figured he succeeded, since neither of them made any sort of move to show that they had noticed it.

Focusing back on Hinata, he liked the way the color of her outfit made her seem pure and innocent, which he found to be kind of ironic considering he also thought that his headband had more fabric on it than she did.

He then took in their basic body composition, noticing that while both were slightly on the slender side, they had a bit of muscle tone to them. It wasn't much; just enough to show that they were there, and he found that he quite liked it.

He then heard what sounded like clothes hitting the floor, and it took him almost half a minute to realize that Sakura had taken her top off and was crawling up the bed towards him, with Hinata not far behind. This gave him a unique angle to view them under, and it became quite apparent how much larger Hinata's breasts were. Sakura's pretty much just followed her upper body, and while Hinata's were still restrained (slightly) by the stringy top, they swung a little as she moved.

Once Sakura made it all the way up to where Naruto was sitting on the bed, she gently pushed him back, before sliding herself under the covers with him, laying her head on his shoulder, with her face towards his neck. His brain was so overloaded by the feel of Sakura's breasts on his bare chest that he completely missed Hinata's quick inner war, which ended up with her also shedding the skimpy top, and mirroring Sakura's position on Naruto's other side.

Unable to take the stimulation of the two women breathing on his neck along with two sets of breasts against his bare chest, as well as all the dirty thoughts flying through his mind, he slipped into unconsciousness.

When the girls noticed this, Hinata looked alarmed, and Sakura just giggled, causing Hinata to look at her with a confused expression.

"I think you killed him," Sakura managed to get out once she got her giggling under control, "It seems we're too much for him." This made both girls giggle, and after making a few more jokes at Naruto's expense, they drifted off to sleep.

**AN: kudos to whoever guesses the significance to the color of the girls outfits. If you want to guess, send it to me in a PM so that everybody can try. I'll do something for whoever gets it first, I just haven't figured out what to do yet. **

**AN 2: kudos goes to element-chaos for correctly guessing the outfits importance, but if thr rest of you want to keep trying, go ahead. i have also determined the reward. i will answer any questions (even spoilers) the next person who correctly guesses the outfits importance.  
**

**AN 3: ****I am considering giving naruto, hinata, and sakura weapons during their senjutsu training. i have already formed some ideas of my own for what to give them, but i would also appreciate your input on what to give them, or even if i should give them anything.  
**


	23. Chapter 23

**Ch 23**

Naruto awoke to a smothered feeling. There was weight on his chest and it was making it slightly hard to breathe. It was still dark out, so he couldn't really see what was on his chest. He gently pulsed his chakra twice. It wasn't enough to wake the girls, but it was enough to activate the chakra-sensitive seals in the walls which were connected to the lights in the room. As they slowly lit up, revealing the weight on his chest, he almost passed out.

Sakura was curled up on his right side, with her face in his neck, and her breaths were tickling the hairs on his neck, sending bursts of molten fire through his nervous system. She was face down, and from what he could see of her back, she was still topless. His eyes traveled farther down her back, following the curve of her spine, until his view was interrupted by the sheet, which came up to just above her waist.

Moving his eyes to his left, he found Hinata curled up to him, but her head was on his chest, right over his heart. Like Sakura, she was face-down, and also topless. Her face was obscured by her hair, and he couldn't get his hands close enough to move it, so he wasn't able to stare at her face. Returning his eyes to her back, he followed her spine down until he got to her backside, which was only covered by a small white pair of panties. _'That color really works for her,'_ he thought. Looking farther down, he could see most of her upper thighs sticking out from under the sheet, as well.

Having finally regained some control over his nervous system, he was able to feel things besides Sakura breathing on his neck. He could feel one of Sakura's arms curled up against his right side, and one of Hinata's lying on his chest. He could also feel that each girl had thrown one of their legs over his. He was just getting used to all the foreign stimuli when he felt Hinata squirming around slightly in the process of waking up, and she was unconsciously grinding her chest into his stomach.

Right as she went to lift herself off of his chest, he pushed her back down against it and spoke quietly into her ear, "good morning, Hinata-chan, but you're still topless, and unless you want to give me a free show, I suggest you stay where you are."

It took Hinata's sleep-addled brain almost a full minute to process what he said, and the whole time he was trying not to laugh at the way she looked. He couldn't help it; with her hair going everywhere, including in front of her face, her half open eyes, and the look of complete and utter confusion, her face just made him want to laugh.

When she did finally process what he said, her reaction was immediate. Her face turned one of the darkest reds he had ever seen her face go, and she immediately tried to bury it in his chest. Naruto couldn't take it anymore, and finally let out his laughter. This in turn woke Sakura up, who, upon noticing Hinata's position and the way Naruto was laughing, started giggling herself. Hinata lifted her head enough to glare at Sakura, and Sakura just started laughing harder.

Eventually, Naruto managed to get out from under the girls, and the three of them got dressed. They then grabbed their packs, and departed the village, leaving in the early morning mist to avoid the crowds.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Two weeks later, they were stepping off the boat to Jungle Country. After making it a fair way into the jungle, they each summoned their familiars, and set out. They had walked for about three hours when Naruto suddenly stopped and slammed his hand into his forehead.

"Oh, damn it," he said, "we never asked Kyuubi where we should go when we got here."

"Well, just summon him and ask him," Sakura said.

"Alright," he said, as he nipped his finger. After flashing through the seals and shouting, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Kyuubi appeared, and then Naruto said, "Oi, furball, we're here. Where do we go now?"

"**Hmm, where you came out of the river last time you were here should work. It's obviously close to water, and there was enough of a clearing there to make a decent shelter, I also recall a bit of a breeze there, which should help cut down on the humidity a bit."**

"Thank god," said Sakura, "it's murdering my hair."

Kyuubi just laughed, **"Well, I hope you get that out of your system soon, because with what I have planned, worrying about your hair is going to be the last thing on your mind. Hell, you might end up with no hair at all during various stages of my teachings."**

"Great," Sakura muttered dejectedly.

"Umm, one question, how do we get back to where me and Hinata were without jumping in the river again, because I really, _really,_ don't want to do that."

"**Too bad, Naruto, you don't really have a choice, although I recommend that you pick a different spot on the bridge to jump in from, so you don't slam into that rock again."**

"Yeah, no shit, furball," Naruto shot back, "I know I'm not the smartest person out there, but I'm not _that_ stupid."

"**That's up for debate, but summon me again the morning after you get all set up there, and I'll start you on your training."**

The fox poofed out, leaving the three angry teens to make their own way to the rope bridge over the river.

It took them about another hour to make it to the bridge, and they could tell that it had been completely rebuilt since the last time they were here. The anchors were new, and larger than the old ones, as were the main support vines. The boards were of a different wood, and it seemed like they repelled moisture better. There were also more vines going between the boards and the railing vines, making it a huge improvement over the old one.

Once they were done looking over the bridge, they began discussing ways to get down to the river safely, and after about a half hour of discussing various methods, Naruto created a clone, and it promptly jumped over the edge, watching the side of the cliff as it fell.

It took a couple more minutes for the girls to realize that Naruto wasn't taking part in the conversation anymore, and when they looked over at him they saw him just standing there with a smirk on his face. When they questioned him about it, he just said that he had figured out the best way down.

"And how did you figure that out?"

"Each of you make a kage bunshin and I'll show you."

"How will that help?"

"Just do it."

Both girls then made a clone, and Naruto walked up to them, grabbed them by the back of their shirts, and tossed them over the edge of the cliff, along with another clone of himself.

"What the hell, Naruto, those things take a lot out of us! Don't just go waste them like that!"

"It wasn't a waste. Think about the side of the cliff. What do you know about it now?"

"It's covered in vines……..what the hell? How do I know that?"

Hinata, who already knew about the information passing abilities of the clones stayed silent, as Naruto launched into his explanation. "Shadow clones are different than the other kinds of clones by more than the fact that they aren't based on an element. Part of the reason that they cost so much chakra is because they learn. Whatever they learn is passed back to the original when they are dispelled."

He explained a bit more about the clones, and then they began to climb down the cliff. The fifty foot descent didn't take very long, and they were able to find enough calm spots in the water to water-walk to the end of the rapids. Thus they came to their next problem, which was how to travel the rest of the way down the river.

"Well, we can't walk the whole way there, since neither of us have that much chakra," Sakura said to the group.

"Sakura-chan, _I_ don't have enough chakra to do that. This river goes a lot faster than it looks, and in some places is really deep, which would make you burn through your chakra even faster. Besides, I have a better idea."

"Ano, what is it, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked quietly, managing not to stutter.

"I'll tell you in just a sec. first, though, I need to know if either of you have waterproof packs." When both girls shook their heads in a negative response, Naruto took out a scroll from his pocket, and upon unrolling it on a near-by dry rock, released a much larger scroll from it. "Alright, gimme your packs, and anything else you got on that you don't want to get wet." He ended up sealing all three of their packs, as well as all their equipment into the scroll, which he returned to the smaller scroll, which he put back into his vest pocket.

"Naruto, our stuff isn't gonna get destroyed if that scroll gets wet, is it?" Sakura asked.

"Nope. The little scroll is waterproof, so even if it did get wet, the stuff in it won't."

"Okay, now what is this great idea of yours to get us down the river faster?"

"Come over here and I'll show you." Naruto then walked out into the middle of the river, and as soon as the girls were close enough, he grabbed onto them, and cut the chakra supply to his feet, dropping the three of them into the river.

"What the hell, Naruto? I thought you had some great idea!" Sakura screamed at him, as they floated down stream.

"This is my great idea. We'll be there in a few hours, so just relax, and go with the flow," he told her, "I'd a told you to put bathing suits on, but there is a pretty nasty part of the river pretty close to where we gotta get out that I don't think you'd like."

"Ano, what's so bad about it?" Hinata asked.

"It's got some really nasty seaweed stuff growing in it, and it goes almost all the way across. There is a gap in it, but you still feel it as you go by."

They continued to float down the river for the rest of the day, and sure enough, the girls were definitely freaked out at the touch of the seaweed stuff. Shortly thereafter, they made it to where Naruto had dragged Hinata out of the river the last time they were there, and just as Kyuubi had predicted, there was a breeze blowing through the canyon they had just left. It wasn't much, but it definitely took the edge off the humidity, and for that, they were grateful.

Once they were out of the water, Naruto summoned a fox.

"How may I be of service, Naruto-san?"

"We just need some dinner, if you would be so kind," replied Naruto.

"Any preferences?" the fox asked.

"Not this time, Takuo. Just find us whatever you can. We're not that used to the jungle, so we'll take whatever you can get, so long as it's edible."

"Okay. I'll be back," the fox said, before taking off into the jungle.

"So, what now?" Sakura asked.

"We build us a camp," Naruto said, "unless you two _want_ to stay in a stuffy, humid tent for the next six months."

The girls looked at each other, then at Naruto, and then back at each other, before both almost shouting "NO" at the same time.

"Well, then I suggest we get busy on a shelter," Naruto said, as he created about a hundred clones. He then summoned a five-tail fox.

"Daichi-san, I am in need of your talents," Naruto asked the fox.

Both girls were rendered speechless by his remark, since they had never heard him speak this respectfully to anyone. Hell, they didn't even think he knew _how_ to be respectful to people in higher positions.

"Oh? What for?"

"Kyuubi has decided to teach the three of us senjutsu out in the middle of Jungle Country, and we need a shelter during our stay here," he told the fox, which upon closer inspection, seemed to be rather old, based on how it was moving.

"Oh? You're the three he's teaching? Your companions are younger than I thought. Nonetheless, how long will you need this structure to last?"

"At least six months, possibly longer," he told the fox.

"Mmmm," the fox said as he looked around, taking stock of what materials were available. "What kind of structure did you have in mind?"

"Well," Naruto thought about it for a moment, "besides the main room, a bathroom would be nice, and a kitchen if you can swing it. Oh, and maybe bedrooms, if it's not too much to ask."

"How many?" the fox asked, referring to bedrooms.

"Well, if the girls are willing to share," he said while looking over at them. They just stared back at him for a moment, before agreeing that they could share. "Then two would be fine."

"Well, I think that it's possible. How long do you have to get it done?"

"Well, Kyuubi didn't really give us a time to be done by, but I'd like to be done in a week, if that's possible."

"Hmm, it'll be close, but I think we can do it. Just bring out the rest of my help, and we'll go from there."

Naruto nodded his head, and went through the summoning procedure again, and when the smoke cleared, there were five, four-tail foxes surrounding Naruto.

"Alright, let's go!" he shouted, and the four-tail foxes, along with Naruto's clones, began the process of building their shelter. Before long, there was a spot cleared out, and the foundations were set. With night fast approaching, the original Naruto set up the tent, and Takuo returned with some kind of animal, which turned out to be pretty good. After cleaning up for the night, they retired into the tent.

Once they were all inside, however, they discovered exactly why it sucks so much to camp in a tent in the jungle. Outside the tent it was about seventy degrees, with a tolerable humidity, and inside the tent, it was about ninety degrees, with almost a hundred percent humidity. The fact that their clothes hadn't exactly dried out yet wasn't helping matters any. Sure, they did have other clothes to wear, but Naruto had unsealed them all right after they got out of the river, and the moisture in the air had worked its way into almost everything they had brought with them, which made everything perpetually damp. Not exactly what you want for your underwear when you're trying to sleep.

"Aghh, this sucks!" Naruto exclaimed, at somewhere around one in the morning, "I can't take it anymore!" He crawled out of the tent, still wearing only his boxers, and went over and sat down in the river. He sat there for almost an hour, before getting out and walking over to what was left of their fire, and sitting down on a log. He eventually slid off of the log and onto the ground, leaning against the log instead of sitting on it, and fell into a restless sleep.

He awoke again shortly after dawn, and found both girls in their underwear sleeping in positions similar to his own, and he could tell that they were getting about as much sleep as he did, which was close to none. He woke them up, and after much griping and complaining, managed to make them decent enough so he could summon his building foxes, and after unleashing them, along with a hundred or so clones, they continued to work on their shelter.

A week later, and it was basically finished. It had all the rooms they had asked for, and after some clever pipe-work, it even had running water, complete with a shower. A tank and some heating seals even gave them hot water. They even had some furniture than Naruto had carved out of building scraps with rasengans. They were immensely happy that they were done, since they were actually able to get a good night's sleep.

The day after they had finished, Naruto summoned Kyuubi again, to let him know that they were ready for his training.

"Alright, furball, what've you got for us?"

"**Don't call me that, brat. Anyway, this is what I want you three to do…"**

**AN: Sorry about the delay. I just got a job and am getting ready to move, so my updates will probably start taking longer, but fear not. I will not abandon this fic.**

**AN 2: should I show their training right now, or cover it later in flashbacks? Also, if I should give them weapons or not. If you think I should, give me some suggestions. Thanks!**


	24. Chapter 24

**Ch 24**

"Mendoukusei."

"Oh, come on Shikamaru, this is important."

"Che, as if. Nothing ever happens here that's even remotely exciting," said Shikamaru to his fellow gate guard.

It was in-between semesters at the academy, and Iruka was stuck on gate duty when he wasn't handing out missions. Today, it was with the ever-lazy Shikamaru.

Suddenly, Shikamaru looked over at the list of people expected to return that day, "Hey, we're not expecting anybody today, are we?"

"Not that I'm aware of, why?"

"Because there's three people coming in that I don't recognize."

Sure enough, once Iruka looked out of the gate, he could see three cloaked people walking up to the gate. At first glance, they looked like ANBU, but a deeper inspection proved that false. They all wore black cloaks with the hoods up, so he couldn't see their faces.

The tallest one, who was walking in the middle, was about five and a half feet tall, and based on their build, Iruka assumed that this person was male. The other two were a few inches shorter than the first, and seemed to be female. They were quiet up until they got to the gate, and when the middle figure lifted his head and spoke, it confirmed his suspicions that he was male. He didn't lift his face enough for Iruka to see it, but he did allow the chunin to see the leaf forehead protector around his neck.

"Calm down, we mean you no harm," the man said. "We are team fox returning from a long term mission."

Shikamaru flipped through some papers in the guard building, and much to his surprise, found a page for team fox. He was even more surprised that all of their identities were blacked out. There were ANBU with more information in their files than the three of them combined.

"Alright, you're cleared. Just go to the tower for your debriefing."

The three cloaked people just nodded before making their way into the village, seemingly vanishing into the crowd.

A short way into the village, the three of them ducked into an alley, and removed their cloaks. Their faces remained hidden, however, as the hoods were part of what they wore underneath the cloaks.

The man in the group wore standard black shinobi pants and black sandals, with a kunai pouch on his right leg. On his upper body was a black t-shirt, green chunin vest, and a sleeve-less black trench coat, with a red lining. It was slit in the back, coming up to his waist, and also had the kanji for fox on the back, done in the same red as the lining. His face was hidden behind a mask, similar to an ANBU's mask, except it was colored much different. It was a dark red color, and styled after a fox. The teeth were painted a bright white, and there were nine black marks on it, three on each cheek, and three on the forehead. His hands were covered with plate-backed finger-less gloves.

The taller of the two girls wore knee-high black boots, black cargo shorts, and had a kunai pouch on her right leg. She had a white shirt on, which had a random pattern of a rusty red color, as well as a green chunin vest. She had a black sleeveless trench coat as well, except the lining was the same color as her shirt, as was the writing on the back. She also had a similar mask to the man, except that it only had one mark on the forehead, instead of three, and was colored the same as her coat lining. Her gloves were like the man's, except they had full fingers on them.

The shorter female wore black sandals, and black knee-length pants, also with a kunai pouch on her right leg. She had a white shirt on, under her chunin vest, which was covered by a white-lined sleeve-less black trench coat, with the kanji for fox on the back done in white. Her mask was the same as the others, but with two marks on the forehead, and again, colored the same as her coat lining. The teeth were outlined in black. She had her hands hidden in plate backed finger-less gloves, as well.

They quickly stowed the cloaks in their packs, and the man removed the forehead protector from around his neck, and gave it to the shorter female, who tied it loosely around her neck. They each then performed the summoning technique, and once their summons were safely perched on their shoulders, they took off for the tower.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Tsunade was actually enjoying her day, for once. Well, as much as she could while still wondering when three certain people would return to the village, anyway. Naruto, Hinata, and Sakura had left the village nearly a year and a half ago for senjutsu training, and apart from vague letters from them every month or so, she had no idea how they were doing.

Looking up from her desk, she spun in her chair to gaze out at the village, enjoying this brief moment of relaxation while she was ahead on her paperwork. As she turned back, though, there were three people standing quietly in front of her desk, each wearing a fox mask, black trench coat, and with a fox on their shoulder.

The man stepped forward, "Team fox reporting in, mission successful."

Tsunade just raised an eyebrow at them, "Who the hell are you? Konoha doesn't have a 'team fox.'"

"It does now," the man said from behind his mask, and from his tone of voice Tsunade could tell he was smirking.

"You have four seconds to take your mask off and tell me who you are before I crush you into paste," she said slowly, while clenching both of her fists.

"Alright, alright, keep your pants on," he said, as he slowly removed his mask. He set it on her desk, but kept his head down so she couldn't see his face right away, and instead made her focus on the mask. While seemingly similar to ANBU masks, she found this one to be much more intimidating. After a quick motion of his hands, the man's companions also bowed their heads, placing their masks on the desk so Tsunade could look at them.

They could see the gears in Tsunade's head starting to turn at that point, as she looked between the masks, them, and their foxes. At first, all her eyes showed was confusion, but the gleam of understanding grew slowly, and right before she said anything, the man looked up, and pulled back his hood, revealing his face.

Golden blond hair sat on top of the bluest eyes the Hokage had ever seen, set in one of her favorite faces. His whisker marks were a bit thicker than they were when he left, and his canines were longer, to the point where they were just about to poke out of his lip. Combined with the rest of his features, it gave him an almost feral appearance.

"How's it going, baa-chan?" he asked, while the other two dropped their hoods, revealing Hinata and Sakura, who were both smiling at the older woman.

Tsunade just gaped at the three people in her office for a few moments, before standing and walking around her desk to face Naruto. She eyed him up for a second, before firmly planting her fist into his face, sending him flying back across the room, through the doors, and into the wall right next to Shizune's desk. Before he could even do anything, the angry Hokage was pulling him from the crater in the wall. She stood him up, and without giving him the chance to run away, wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a bone-crushing hug, his head wedged firmly between her massive breasts.

Hinata, Sakura, and Shizune just stared at the two blonds for a few minutes, until Hinata realized that Naruto was barely conscious. "Tsunade-sama, I think you should let go now."

"Huh? Why?"

"Because Naruto-kun's about to pass out."

Sure enough, as soon as Tsunade released Naruto, he collapsed to the floor, gasping for air. "What…..the hell……..d'ya hit me for?" he asked, as he tried to get a normal amount of air back in his lungs.

"Cause you've been gone for a year and a half and didn't tell me anything the whole time you were gone!!!!!!!!!!"

The three of them just sweat-dropped at the comment and chuckled nervously, since it was true that they hadn't sent the village anything the whole time they were gone.

"As for you two," Tsunade said, rounding on Hinata and Sakura, "it's good to see you again," she said, pulling them into a much gentler hug.

"What the hell's up with this, baa-chan?" Naruto asked as he stood up. "You hit me in the face, try to suffocate me, and yell at me, and they get welcomed with a hug?"

"First, I've told you not to call me that. Second, you didn't write me the whole time you were gone. Third, they were both my students. Fourth, think of it as a year and a half of back-logged teasing."

"Hmph. Fine."

"So, how'd you're training go?"

"Each of us are as good as you and Ero-sennin, except for the experience. That's the only thing we really need."

Tsunade just cocked an eyebrow at Naruto. "Really? Good as us, huh?"

"Yup. Go ahead and try and hit me again, full force."

"Full force? You realize that I can turn you into paste if I hit you like that, right?"

"Baa-chan, I trained with Sakura-chan for a year and a half. I'm well aware of what you're strength can do."

"Alright, I'll do it. But not here. I have to fix holes in the walls too much as it is. Meet me at training ground seven in an hour, and we'll see just him much you've learned."

"Alright. See ya later, baa-chan."

The three of them then donned their masks again, pulled up their hoods, and exited via the window, heading for Naruto's house.

When they got there, they each changed clothes, not wanting to be seen in their sage outfits just yet. (They're back to their regular Shippuuden outfits) Once they were changed, they headed out to the training fields.

As they neared the fields, Naruto and Sakura were both overcome with memories of the place. Hinata could feel the surging emotions from her two companions, and stayed silent.

Xxxxxxxxxx

When Tsunade and her companions arrived, they found an interesting sight. Hinata was sitting against one of the posts meditating, and Naruto was sitting right next to her, having a quiet conversation with Sakura. The weird part of it, though, was that Sakura was in Naruto's lap, with her head on his shoulder. As they got closer, they could feel the sadness rolling off of the two chunin, and figured that they must be remembering their times with Sasuke.

Once they were within range to speak in normal voices, Naruto spoke up. "Hello, baa-chan. What's with all the people? I can tell that Kakashi-sensei's there, along with Ero-sennin, an ANBU, Shizune, but I don't know who the last one is," Naruto said, without looking at them. Before any of Tsunade's group could respond, Hinata answered him.

"It's Kurenai-sensei, Naruto-kun."

"Oh, well, hi," he said, finally looking up at them. Sensing that Jiraiya was about to make some perverted comment, he cut him off, "Before you say anything, Ero-sennin, what me, Hinata-chan, and Sakura-chan do in our own time is our business, not yours, and if you don't give me that notebook in the next ten seconds, you won't be able to sit properly for a month."

Adopting a pouty expression, Jiraiya fired back, "Fine, I won't ask about the three of you, but why threaten my notebook when it hasn't been out in hours?"

"I know you better than that, Ero-sennin. Besides," he said, as a clone of him handed Naruto Jiraiya's notebook, "I could sense you watching us for the last twenty minutes. During that time, you wrote seven pages about us." Naruto stopped talking for a moment while he read what the old pervert had written, being careful to hold it so the girls couldn't see it. When he finished the first page, he sighed heavily, and held the notebook above his head, with it lying on his palm, as if he was carrying a tray. He then formed a rasengan, utterly shredding the notebook.

"NOOO!!!!!! My precious research!!!!!!"

Naruto closed his eyes as he lowered his arm, and allowed his head to hang for a moment, before leveling one of the strongest glares he could at the old man.

"Ero-sennin, what did I say would happen to you if you tried to use me in your research again?" he asked the old pervert, his voice so cold that it was almost freezing the air around them.

Jiraiya, who obviously wasn't paying much attention to the blond, kept running around the clearing, trying to collect all the shreds of his research. He did, however, recognize that Naruto had asked him a question, so he answered, "Umm, something about you being royally pissed, I think."

"Yes. Do you remember what happens to you when I'm royally pissed at you?"

"Yeah, you chase me while screaming about kicking my ass, but you never catch me."

"And what did I say would happen if I ever caught you?"

"Uhhh, I don't remember, since its never happened."

"WELL IT HAS NOW!!!!" Naruto screamed out, as a clone suddenly appeared behind the man. "Konoha Hiden Taijutsu Ougi: Uzumaki Sennen Goroshi!!!!!!" it screamed, but instead of ramming its fingers up the perverts ass, like the normal Sennen Goroshi, the clone used a kunai wrapped in a special exploding note. The reason this note was special is that it is much more powerful than normal exploding notes.

As soon as the clone thrust the wrapped kunai into Jiraiya's ass, the world seemingly stopped for a moment. The wind stopped, the birds stopped, everything stopped. Then, Jiraiya went flying into the air, screaming obscenities.

"Damn, Naruto, that was a good one," Sakura commented.

"Why'd you use a kunai? And what was with the tag? I've never seen one like that before," Kakashi asked.

"Well, the kunai makes it hurt more, and the reason you haven't seen that kind of tag is because it's a demon tag. It explodes with about the same force as a hundred normal tags." Right as Naruto finished, there was a loud explosion in the air, and they then noticed a smoking Jiraiya hurtling towards the ground at supersonic speed, followed by a loud crash when he hit the ground.

"Mayu, Yuuka, Kotaro, can you go find Ero-sennin and drag him to the hospital?"

The three foxes just sighed, "Fine. We'll meet you at the house later." They then went off, looking for the remains of the pervert.

"Alright, then, baa-chan, I believe you owe me a punch," Naruto said, as the three of them stood up.

Noticing the confused looks on her companions' faces, Tsunade said, "Earlier in my office, I blasted him into the wall. When I asked him about their abilities, he said they were on par with Jiraiya and myself. He then asked me to hit him, full force. I said I would, after warning him of the consequences, but recommended we move out here so that he doesn't have to pay to have half the homes in Konoha fixed when he goes flying through them."

Her companions gaped at Naruto. He was basically asking Tsunade to turn him into paste. Sakura had once matched Tsunade with a punch, fist to fist, with Sakura at full power. Once the dust settled, Tsunade had to repair every bone in Sakura's hand and arm, since they were almost turned to dust from the impact. When Sakura asked Tsunade how much she put into that hit, she almost passed out from Tsunade's reply of 'about seventy five percent.'

So, upon Naruto requesting all one hundred percent of what Tsunade could dish out, they were beyond amazed.

"Alright, Naruto, you'll get your full on hit, but I'm not just gonna go all out. I'll start lower and work my way up, so if it turns out that you can't handle it I won't accidentally kill you."

"Whatever, baa-chan, lets get going."

"Alright. I'm gonna start out with the same force I used on you earlier, which is about twenty percent of what I got."

She then swung her fist at Naruto, who just stood there and caught it, seemingly without effort, his arm barely registering the impact.

"That's it? Sakura-chan hits harder than that in our warm-ups."

"Here's half," Tsunade replied, swinging again. Again, Naruto caught her fist with one hand, this time allowing it to recoil a few inches before stopping her fist. Everyone but Sakura and Hinata just gaped at Naruto.

"This is seventy five. I once matched fists with Sakura at this level while she was going all-out, and I shattered all the bones in her arm. You sure you want me to do this?"

"Bring it on, baa-chan."

Tsunade actually stepped into this one, slamming her right fist into Naruto's left. He actually reacted this time, bringing his right hand up to reinforce his left, and slid back about a foot.

"Mmm, not bad."

Everyone who had been gaping at the pair now had to try and scrape their jaws off the ground. The last time Tsunade had hit someone that hard, they had taken the offender out of the room with a mop and a bucket.

"Alright. This is the full force. Nobody has ever lived through taking one of these hits directly. It'll take me a few seconds to focus this much chakra, so prepare yourself. I can't hold it for very long, so you won't get much warning," she said, gathering chakra to her fist. Before long, everyone could see the chakra gathered around her fist, wrapping it in a light blue aura. Naruto took a step back, allowing Tsunade enough room to step into the hit, and brought up both of his hands, this time positioning them so she would hit his right instead of his left.

Without warning, Tsunade suddenly cocked her glowing fist back, and while lunging forward, slammed it into Naruto's hands. The impact created a loud bang, as well as a huge dust cloud, obscuring Naruto from sight.


	25. Chapter 25

**Ch 25**

When the dust settled, it revealed that Naruto had slid back several feet, and was panting slightly, but seemed otherwise fine.

Tsunade walked over to him, breathing a little heavier than he was, and began a diagnostic jutsu on his arms. What she found amazed her. Well, more specifically, what she didn't find. His hands and arms showed no signs of having just experienced a sharp impact. No breaks, no fractures, no bruising, nothing.

"How the hell did you do that? By all rights you should be dead."

"It wasn't that hard, baa-chan. I just channeled the chakra from your punch into the ground. It kinda lifts me up a little, and the force from your fist itself is what pushed me back."

"It's not a perfect solution, though," Sakura said, breaking into the conversation, "it takes a lot of focus to do that. If you catch him off guard or land a hit to his body it'll still kill him."

"So what all do you guys know now?"

"Well, I'm a wind user, Sakura-chan is earth, and Hinata-chan is water. We also have several fox-based abilities."

"Such as….."

"A secondary affinity for fire, although ours is kinda special. We also got enhanced senses, stuff like that."

"What do mean, special?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto just did a couple seals, brought his hand up to his mouth and shouted "Katon: Endan," shooting a stream of fire out of his mouth. Only, it wasn't colored like normal fire. Instead of being orange and red like normal fire, this fire was blue.

"It's fox fire."

Everyone watching was in awe. They'd never seen blue fire before. Well, not like that, anyway. Sure, they'd seen blue fire made by burning certain chemicals, but never made by a ninja technique.

Naruto carried on, ignoring the shocked faces. "We also have our sage abilities, as well as some collaborative jutsu, but I don't think we'll be showing those right now."

"Why not?" Tsunade asked, once got over her surprise at the fire.

"Baa-chan, did Ero-sennin ever show you his sage mode?"

"Yes."

"When not in a battle?"

"Er……… no."

"Didn't think so. _I _haven't even seen it yet. He's told me some things about it, but that's it. I also know you have one, but even _he_ doesn't know what yours can do."

"He wouldn't. I've never shown it to anyone. Ever. Not even Shizune knows what I can do."

"What about basic abilities?"

"Well, we can all sense people a lot better than we used to be able to, as well as some things about them."

"Oh? Like what?"

"The ANBU right there uses water and earth."

The ANBU recoiled slightly in surprise. "What makes you think that?" he asked.

"Because you're molding both of them right now. I can feel it; I guess is the best way to describe it."

"So you can sense other people's elements?"

"Only if they're in use, and even then it's not perfect. The main reason I noticed his was because I was actively looking for baa-chan while waiting for you all."

"Anything else you want to share?"

"Just that we're all a lot faster."

"Alright. Be at the tower in a week. You're off until then, ok?"

"Alright baa-chan. Later!" Naruto said, as the three of them all vanished in clouds of smoke.

Xxxxxxxxxx

They reappeared inside his house, which was surprisingly still clean. Although it was still only early evening, Naruto decided to go to sleep, since his spar with Tsunade had worn him out more than he thought it would. The girls ran off to go do……….. whatever it is that girls do. While waiting for his body to calm down enough to fall asleep, his thoughts turned back to a couple weeks after they moved into their jungle house.

Flashback

They had been staying in their new house for a couple weeks, and were just about to finish the first part of their elemental training, since Kyuubi had decided to teach them that as well. They had all done well that day, so the fox had let them finish early. He was just about to fall asleep, when Sakura and Hinata came into his room.

"What's up?" he asked, yawning.

"We need to talk, Naruto……… about us," Sakura told him.

"Huh? What about us?"

"Ok, Hinata and I both like you," she continued, "and you like each of us. That brings us to a slight problem. That problem being, which one of us do you go for?" she sensed him about to interrupt, and held up her hand to stop him. "Wait until we're done to ask your questions. Now, this problem is normally solved by forcing the man to pick one or the other, thus making one girl happy, and destroying the other one, while leaving you in the awkward position of having to choose.

Another thing that usually makes this situation worse is that the two girls involved almost always seem to hate each other," Sakura told him.

Hinata picked up where Sakura left off, "However, since Sakura-san and I do not hate each other, and neither one of us wants to go through the pain of not being chosen, as well as not wanting to put you through the pain of having to choose, we have decided on another course of action. We have decided to…….. to share you, Naruto-kun."

Naruto just sat there in shock. When the girls had suddenly entered his room, he had mentally prepared for a lot of things, but by no means was he prepared for that. When the silence hit the minute mark, Sakura leaned over to Hinata and whispered, "I think we broke him."

Another minute passed, and Naruto finally broke out of his stupor, saying, "Huh?"

"We both like you Naruto, and we decided to share you," Sakura said again.

"Well, I know you two like me," Naruto said, confused.

"Ugh, Naruto, we both _like_ you," Sakura said again, emphasizing the like.

It suddenly began to dawn in Naruto what exactly she meant, "oh…….Oh……….OH…… So you both….."

"Yeah. We want to be with you, Naruto-kun," Hinata told him, managing to not stutter.

"Wow," Naruto stated, still trying to wrap his head around what they wanted to do, "So you both want to, like, be my girlfriends?"

Tiring of explaining the same concept over and over again, each girl walked up to him, and kissed him on the cheek, before pulling back and saying "Yes" at the same time.

"Oh, that's what I thought," he said, and them promptly fainted from sensory overload.

End Flashback

That night had changed a lot of things in his life. Some of the changes were good, like having two girlfriends. Some of them weren't so good, like having two girlfriends. Others just plain sucked, like having to explain to two sets of parents that he was dating their daughter, along with another girl, at the same time. He was not looking forward to telling Sakura's parents, and he was pretty sure he'd rather castrate himself with a spoon than tell Hiashi, but it was something that he would have to do eventually.

Although, the thought struck him at that moment, he didn't have to tell Hiashi, since he had banished Hinata from the clan. He also decided that he would talk to Sakura the next time he saw her about informing her parents. He _really_ didn't want to, but figured that he probably should. He would have kept thinking about it, but he fell asleep at that point.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Meanwhile, Hinata and Sakura were wandering the market. They weren't really looking for anything in particular, but they didn't want to be home right then. So they decided to wander the market, and see if anything caught their eye.

That's not to say that they were bored, though. Far from it, in fact. They were currently in the middle of a very important conversation. They were trying to decide the best way for Hinata to go about seducing Naruto. After all, they'd been together for almost a year and a half and _still_ hadn't made it past kissing and petting. It wasn't due to lack of trying, they were usually just too damn tired to do anything by the time they finished training. Hell, Naruto hadn't even seen Hinata topless yet.

He's seen Sakura topless, since that's how she slept the whole time they were gone, and even felt her up a couple times, but that's as far as they had gone. Naruto didn't know it, but the girls had an unspoken agreement between the two of them that Hinata would get him first, and Sakura didn't want to get too far ahead of her.

"Come on, Hinata, this week is the perfect week to do it. We're done training, and Tsunade-sensei gave us the week off. Who knows when we'll get time off like this again?"

Hinata just blushed a little darker and tried to hide her face in her coat. "It's not that, Sakura, I just don't want it to feel forced. It wouldn't feel right to me if I just threw myself at him."

They kept on talking about getting Hinata laid for a few more hours, and after she almost passed out from some of Sakura's more wild suggestions, they decided to head back to Naruto's house. When they got there, they quietly went up to his room, and found him passed out in the middle of his huge bed, his still-packed backpack at the foot of the bed.

It was at that point that Sakura decided to 'help' Hinata break out of her shell a little farther. When she noticed that Hinata had lost herself in some daydream while staring at Naruto, she decided that it was the perfect time for her to act. She stepped behind the oblivious Hyuuga, and knocked her out with a simple genjutsu.

"Gomen, Hinata," she whispered, as she dragged her over to the bed, "but you'll thank me for this later."

Xxxxxxxxxx

When Naruto awoke, the first thing he realized was that Hinata was curled up next to him, and still sleeping. He was about to write it off as a normal experience, until he noticed two things. The first thing, was that he was naked. While it put him in an uncomfortable situation, since he didn't remember undressing before he went to sleep, and since Hinata hadn't seen him naked yet, that paled in comparison to the second problem. That being that SHE was naked TOO.

Naruto's mind froze at that point. He was naked. She was naked. His arms were around her back, with her chest pushing against his. He was about to try and slide out from underneath her when she started to shift positions, and it was at that point that he realized that one of her legs was in between his, and pressing against a very sensitive part of him.

Once she stopped moving, he again tried to slide out from under her, but as he moved his left leg, it came into contact with a very sensitive part of her, causing her to let out a low, sensual moan in response. He immediately stopped moving, hoping that she wouldn't wake up. He looked at her face, and found that she was still sleeping.

He waited a few more minutes, and then attempted to get out from under her once again. However, as soon as he started to move, she started to move with him, grinding into his leg.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Hinata was in the midst of one of the best dreams of her life. Naruto had taken her out for dinner at a relatively expensive restaurant, and then taken her for a walk in the park, which culminated with them sitting under a tree to watch the sunset. She had managed to go the whole evening without stuttering once, and didn't even blush that much, not even when Naruto made comments about her being beautiful.

After watching the sun set, they had gone back to his house, while having some light conversation about nothing important. He walked her to her room, and once they got there, he spun her around, and kissed her. The shock was so great that by the time she realized that he was kissing her, he had already pulled back. When she looked up at his face, he had a slightly confused expression, which she quickly wiped away when she wrapped her arms around him, both hands grabbing as much hair as they could, and pulled him back down for another kiss.

She pulled so hard though, that he almost knocked them over when they met, and they would've ended up on the floor if the door had been open. It wasn't, so Hinata ended up slamming into it. This did not interrupt the kiss, though. If anything, it made it more intense, since Naruto lifted her up to be level with him, pushing her back into the door.

She wasn't sure how long they were like that, but eventually they made it inside her room, which was followed shortly by her hands making it inside his shirt. As her hands began to explore his chest, he started to kiss her neck and collarbone, pulling several moans from her.

When she started to explore his back, he pulled her close and undid the zipper on the back of her dress, and started to lightly run his fingertips up and down her spine. She reacted by arching into his chest, digging her fingers into his shoulder blades. He slipped his hands in a little farther, pulling the straps off her shoulders. She pulls back a little, pulling his shirt over his head as her dress slips to the floor.

She quickly leans back against him, though, before he can see anything, her bare chest pressing against his. They lock faces again, each exploring the others back as much as they can. Before long, though, Naruto's hands wander to her sides, his feather light touches making her arch into him again. When she starts to lay her own feather touches on him, he picks her up, carries her over to the bed, and dumps her onto it, finally getting a good look at her.

She can feel her face heat up under his gaze, and she resists the urge to cover her chest. He can tell that she's uncomfortable, so he murmurs out, "beautiful," which restores her confidence. He continues to stare at her, until he feels her hands at the front of his pants. She fumbles briefly with his belt, but it soon gives way, along with the button and zipper of his pants.

He steps out of them, joining her on the bed. Starting at her jaw, he slowly kisses his way down her body, skipping over her chest, much to her displeasure. He seems to sense this, and smiles into her stomach as he continues his way down her body. When he gets to her waist, he gives her a look that says, 'this is your last chance to stop me,' and she closes her eyes and nods her head.

He hooks his fingers into the elastic of her last remaining clothing, and slowly pulls it off, tossing it randomly over his shoulder. She opens her eyes again, seeing him deeply inhale the scent of her arousal, and a very content expression settles on his face. He leans forward, capturing her lips in his own, holding his weight up on his left elbow, while his right hand creeps up her left thigh, coming ever closer to her most sacred of areas.

She bears the growing tension within herself as long as she can, until she snaps, and wildly grinds her hips into his hand, forcing him to caress her overheated womanhood. He goes to move his hand away, but she wraps her legs around his waist, trapping his arm in place. Since her legs keep his arm from moving, she begins to grind herself against it, panting and moaning ever louder as she feels her release building, the coil winding tighter and tighter, until it finally snaps, and she sends herself over the edge, screaming his name at the top of her lungs.

**AN: Sorry about the wait on this chapter. i just moved into a new house, and its been kinda hectic. i dont even have a proper place to put my computer. its sitting on top of a plastic crate next to my bed. anyway, i hope you like it. finally got 50k hits today, too. as i type this, there are 50,093 hits, and 107 reviews. thanks to all who read, and especially to those who review.**

**AN 2: i realize its been a while since i posted this chapter, but i forgot to add in a little contest when i did, and just now noticed it. anyways, the contest is to gues the name of the ANBU in this chapter. its a canon character, which is the only hint you get. whoever guesses first will win a prize, which is me answering any and all questions that person has about this story, as well as taking any ideas they have.**


	26. Chapter 26

**Ch 26**

Naruto watched in shock as Hinata continued to grind against his leg. The shock didn't come from the fact that there was a girl having an erotic dream about him, but from the fact that it was Hinata that was having it. He didn't really think her mind was capable of those kinds of thoughts.

He was interrupted, though, when Hinata suddenly jerked downward, collapsing on top of him. As he looked down at her, she slowly raised her head, looking up at Naruto.

"Uhh, hi," was all he could come up with at the moment. They kept staring at each other while Hinata slowly became aware of her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was that she was in bed with Naruto.

Not an earth-shattering revelation. It had happened more times than she cared to count.

The second was that she was naked.

This qualified as pretty close to earth-shattering, not only because she was naked, but because she didn't remember _how_ she got that way.

The third thing she noticed almost immediately after the second, and that was the fact that she was currently experiencing the after-shocks of an orgasm, while lying on top of Naruto.

It was not uberly important, just _really_ embarrassing.

She was trying to come up with a plausible explanation for her actions (since she was sure there was one) when she noticed the fourth thing. Something was poking her left thigh.

It took a moment for it to sink in, but when it did, she couldn't believe the implications.

'N-N-N-Naruto-kun's p-p-p-p-p-pe-…..uh, his uh, yeah, _that_ is poking my leg. Whew, at fir- wait, if Naruto-kun's uhm,…. thing, is poking my leg that must mean… oh. My. GOD. NARUTO-KUN IS NAKED TOO!'

Naruto just watched in a strange mix of horror and satisfaction as it slowly dawned on Hinata that they were both naked in bed together.

"That must've been one hell of a dream, Hinata-chan," Naruto said, grinning perversely, "What happened?"

It was at this point that Hinata was praying to whatever higher powers there were that she would faint, but they seemingly ignored her. She was too shocked to faint. She just lay there, staring up at Naruto, as her face got redder and redder, until she was sure that you could've cut both her legs off and she wouldn't bleed at all.

Eventually, Hinata tried to answer his question, although she was still pretty out of it. "W-well, in my dream you took me to dinner, and a walk in the park, where we watched the sun set. A-after that, we came back here. Y-you walked me to my door, but before I could go in you spun me around and k-kissed me. O-once we made it into my room, w-we removed each others' clothes and ….. and y-you st-st-started t-t-t-to r-rub me with your hand."

"Wow, based on how you were moving, I guess I did a really good job."

"Moving?" she asked.

"Yeah. I woke up to find us like this, and as I tried to slide out from under you, my leg brushed up against your, …. um, …. place, and you started moaning and grinding into my leg."

Hinata's face just got darker, if that were possible, since she couldn't believe that she had done something like that. She was about to apologize for her actions, but Naruto cut her off just as she began to speak, "You don't need to be sorry, Hinata-chan. You didn't do anything wrong."

Hinata suddenly looked up at him as she remembered something, "Sakura."

"Huh?"

"Sakura knocked me out last night. This is her fault!" Hinata went to get out of bed to go kick Sakura's ass, but Naruto threw his arms around her before she could get very far.

"Chill out Hinata-chan. She was just trying to help. I know you're not too happy about how she did it, but she did it with your best interests in mind. She was afraid that your natural timidity would prevent you from ever getting this far, regardless of how bad you wanted to."

Hinata opened her mouth to protest, but Naruto cut her off with a kiss. When he let her go so he could breathe, Hinata was trying to glare at him, but the effect was mostly ruined by the still present blush, and the fact that they were both naked.

Naruto just started laughing at her attempt at a glare, until she kissed him, cutting him off mid laugh. They started to wrestle around on the bed for position, flipping over several times, until Naruto managed to pin Hinata underneath him. They stared at each other for a while, until they started kissing again, but slower this time, taking note of sensitive place on each other, like Hinata's neck, and Naruto's whisker marks.

It didn't take long, and their hands started to wander across the body of the other, Naruto running one hand up and down her side, and Hinata running her hands across his back, all the while kissing each other's head and neck.

At one point, Hinata suddenly jerked back, as Naruto's left hand had cupped her right breast and begun kneading it softly. She gasped from the unfamiliar action, and briefly tried to pull away. Naruto, however, promptly stopped this.

"Shh, you're beautiful. You don't have to hide from me or Sakura-chan."

She just laid there all stiff for a few seconds before relaxing, "Okay."

Prior actions resumed, and Naruto began kissing his way down her chest, until he got to her left breast, which he gently took in his mouth and began to suck on. He took great care not to hurt her, even as she arched her back, pressing her chest into his face, all traces of her earlier embarrassment banished by the pleasure coursing through her veins.

Deeming the left one satisfied after a few minutes, he switched to the right, pulling several low moans from the banished Hyuuga. She grabbed handfuls of the sheet, no longer able to keep still, moaning and writhing under him as the knot tightened in her stomach. He just grinned, never stopping his ministrations on her chest.

Feeling that he had given all the pleasure possible from his oral chest massage, he began to kiss his way down her stomach, and came to a rather startling conclusion. Hinata was ticklish. Very ticklish. But, he didn't want to ruin the moment, so he just filed that bit of information into the back of his mind for future reference, continuing to kiss his way down her stomach, until he got to her waist.

Realizing where he was going, Hinata had pressed her knees together as best she could, hiding her most sacred of areas from his view. He looked up at her, as he slowly pulled her knees apart, watching as her face got darker and darker, as he bared her to the world; well, he bared her to himself at least.

Unable to look at him anymore, she looked away as he looked down at her, and had she still been looking at him, she would've seen a rather hungry look come over his face. He quickly dipped his head down, and gently ran his tongue across her hairless womanhood, pulling a rather loud gasp from the timid girl in the process.

He did it again, smiling into her nether region, and had to wrap his arms around her thighs to try and keep her still enough so he could continue. Before long, Hinata had switched from holding the sheets to holding his hair, gasping out, "Whatever…you do….don't…stop."

Naruto just continued his assault, his tongue roaming across everything it could reach. When he found a little nub right above her opening, he suckled it gently, and almost had his head crushed between her thighs.

They continued to move all over the bed, almost falling off on a couple of occasions, while the knot in Hinata's gut got tighter and tighter, until it finally snapped, sending her over the edge.

"NARUTOOOO!"

Naruto just held his place, lapping up her juices as they came out, until she was done. Satisfied that he got it all, he crawled back up to her, and she grabbed him and forced their faces together with as much strength as she could manage in her post-orgasmic bliss.

A few moments later, Naruto pulled back, "Are you ready for this?" he asked quietly, giving her one last chance to back out. Her response was to activate an anti-pregnancy jutsu.

He reached down to guide himself to her opening, but she stopped him before he could enter.

"It will hurt me for the first time. Go slow, okay?"

"I know, hime," he replied, before slowly inserting himself into her.

She cringed slightly from the pain, her fingers digging into his back as her walls stretched to accommodate the intrusion. Her barrier had been broken long ago, so at least she didn't have that to worry about. She could tell when he was in all the way, as the pain stopped building.

For him, it was worse than torture, waiting for her pain to go away. She was so tight he was slightly surprised that blood could still flow through his organ, and the way he felt her walls moving and adjusting to him was beyond description.

It felt like an eternity to him, but she finally gave him the okay to start moving, and he pulled out about half way before sliding back in, making them both gasp from the new sensations flooding their bodies. He moved again, just as slow, eventually building a rhythm to his motions.

Hinata couldn't stand that though, so she began to move with him, countering his motions with her own, telling him to go faster with her actions. So they did; each hastening their actions as much as they could while still maintaining their rhythm.

The stimulations became so intense that shy little Hinata actually began moaning, and eventually almost _screaming_. Hinata's face, already red from both passion and from all the movement, got even darker when she realized this, and began trying to hold them in.

Naruto, however, wanted none of that. Peering down at her, he stopped moving, earning a slight whimper from her. "Stop trying to hold it in. You sound beautiful like that," he told her, and began moving again.

It embarrassed her to no end, but she stopped holding in her noises, and it seemed to make Naruto go all the faster. Her whimpers became moans, her moans became screams, and her screams became _screams_.

He could feel the tightening of his loins, and based on Hinata's ever increasing volume, he was sure she wasn't far off, either.

"Hinata…..I'm…almost…..there," Naruto gasped out in between thrusts.

"Me…..too," she replied, her mind still having difficulty coming to terms with how good their actions felt.

A few minutes later, they both flew over the edge, simultaneously launching the other into the land of orgasmic bliss.

Well, that's what was going on in their heads, anyway. In the real world, Naruto jammed himself as far into her as he could physically get when his release came, and he could feel hers milking him for all he was worth. Once he was spent, he managed to roll them over so he wouldn't smother her with his weight, and they both drifted back to sleep, with Hinata curled up on his chest.

He was very tired, after all. Returning to the village, defeating the super strength of Tsunade, and his….ehh, 'activities' with Hinata were all quite draining on his stamina.

**AN: i wish to apoligize for the length of time it has been since i last updated this story, as well as for the shortess and poor quality to this chapter. i just...didnt feel it, i guess. anyway, part of the reason i havent updated it in so long is that this story has no pre-thought out plot. i have literally been making this story up as i go, unlike storm in the night, which i actually have an outlined plot for. it is, after all, kind of hard to update a story when you dont know what to write about.**

**so, to try and help fix this lack of ideas for it, im going to do something that i just thought of while typing this author note. im going to let you (the readers) suggest some plot topics to wrap up this story. im planning on having a naru-saku lemon in there somewhere, and maybe one with all three of them. as for an ending, the closest ive got to that is trying to decide whether to make the final bad guys be akatsuki, some army of kumo-iwa-ame type nins, or some combination of both. my muse for this story has just up and died, it would seem. so, if any of you decide to send me ideas, SEND THEM TO ME IN A PM. IDEAS IN REVIEWS WILL ONLY GET YOUR REVIEW COMPLETELY IGNORED, EVEN IF IT IS THE BEST IDEA I HAVE EVER COME ACROSS! i dont promise i will use your ideas, but at the very least they will help to find and/or revive my muse for this story. i will credit those whose ideas i use, too.**

**ja  
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